Descente Wombat gloves review

Descente is a name familiar to anyone who was a cycling fan in the 80's. Many of the top teams of the era including the powerhouse Panasonic team and the American upstart 7-Eleven team rode in Descente. In the 90's Descente pretty much disappeared from the American market proving just how volatile the bike business can be. Well Descente is back and if the Wombat glove is any indicator they're as good as they were back in the 80's.

The Wombat is a pretty heavy glove for the dark days of Winter. I've ridden mine on several rides where temps never went above 40 degrees and they kept my mitts warm. One unique feature of the Wombat is a rubberized wind cover that can be pulled over the 4 main fingers to make them into faux mittens. The weather hasn't quite been cold enough for me to justify using them but I imagine they might add a few degrees of warmth. When not needed the cover tucks into a slot on the back of the glove.

The palms are well textured with plenty of grip. While thick enough to keep you warm I never had any dexterity issues like I've had with thick gloves. I was able to shift gears, rummage around in my jersey pockets, adjust my glasses, etc. The fit on these gloves was also nice. I have pretty big claws and usually have a hard time finding large enough gloves. The tips of my fingers had plenty of room. The cuff on the gloves is elastic which I find makes them easier to take on and off than gloves with velcro cuffs. This was handy when going up steep climbs where the gloves proved to be a little too toasty. The only thing I found lacking on these gloves was a terry cloth snot patch. The material on the back of these gloves is pretty coarse - not somthing you want to wipe your nose on.

SIR Training Ride #1

Did my first training ride with the Seattle International Randonneurs. Officially this was the second ride since the first one got canceled due to a snow storm. The weather was good with temps in the 30's and no rain. We met in a parking lot in Tukwila and after signing in I realized I'd forgotten a critical piece of kit: my helmet! Fortunately, REI was right across the street so I dashed over and picked up the cheapest Bell I could find. Peter Beeson gave a rundown of basic safety and a welcome speech. There was a pretty good crowd, probably 40-50 riders.

I hadn't bothered to make a map of the route beforehand and since this was a training ride in January I naturally assumed it would be what most people do for a January training ride: flat and in a low gear with no loads on the knees. Little did I know the SIR definition of a January training ride is "Let's cram in as many knee shattering climbs as we can!" There was one climb that had several riders - myself included - getting off and walking. Doing this sort of climbing so early in the season when termperatures are in the 30's borders on stupidity. Of coruse for every climb there is also a descent and some of these descents were pretty twisty and proved to be a great testing ground for my new Paul Racer brakes. About halfway up the climb on Northpoint road I came to my senses and eased off trying to put as little strain as possible on my knees. I wound up riding the rest of the ride solo though apparently a few other riders crawled in after I finished. The route itself was scenic and challenging and would be a great ride to do later in the season but as a January training ride it was a bit too much.

From here on out I plan to map out all the training rides in Topo to avoid any such surprises. At the end Peter did put my fears to rest by pointing out that there is nothing on PBP as tough as the climbs we did on this ride.

Baby steps to Paris

I'm planning to do Paris-Brest-Paris this summer and I have admit my training has been a little less than disciplined so far. Between a new baby and an old house I haven't been on the bike much in recent months. Now that we're into 2007 and the event is less than 9 months away I've decided to buckle down and actually start training. The Seattle International Randonneurs start their training rides next week and I plan to start attending those. Also dedicating myself to spending some time on the trainer every night. Not the same as actually riding on the road but my current job lacks the facilities to enable bike commuting and riding at night in the rain probably isn't the safest thing for a new father to do. When (if?) the weather dries up I'll start logging some actual road miles at night.