‘Always wear your gloves’ – Paul Seixas has some cycling advice, but why has hand protection gone out of fashion?

Will Jones

Senior Tech Writer

Road cycling gloves have been in decline for some time, with many high profile pros eschewing them except on key occasions like Paris-Roubaix, though even Mathieu van der Poel goes without them for the cobbles.

They indeed will, thanks to real, or in recent times synthetic, leather or suede palms, help with abrasion in the event of a fall. But generally speaking cycling gloves are not designed with this in mind.

Outside of a crash, their primary function is to provide additional comfort to the hands on the bars, adding padding to the hypothenar (the inside of the heel of the palm, as you look down at your own hands), under which the ulnar nerve passes. Impingement of this nerve can cause numbness or tingling in the little, ring, and index fingers.

Why are pros ditching them in increasing numbers, then?

Well, bars are more ergonomic than they used to be and so with a decent bike fit, they rarely need extra padding.

Tadej Pogačar

Gloves on occasion

Gloves for the Spring Classics, seems to be Pogačar’s approach. Curiously he celebrated his third Flanders this year glove-less but he did have them on for most of the race. He occasionally wears gloves at the Tour de France and other stage races but is mostly bare-handed.

Mathieu van der Poel

No gloves

No gloves, never, not even at Roubaix.

The Belgian will somewhat bizarrely slip his gloves on for a podium ceremony, but in the race itself, he’s always bare-handed.

The leading rider in the women’s peloton is firmly in the gloves camp – she wears them for every race.

Kasia Niewiadoma

Gloves, sometimes

The women’s peloton would appear to be a far more glove-friendly environment, and while Niewiadoma does often wear mitts, she’s one of the few big names who regularly goes without.

Lotte Kopecky

Gloves, mostly

The former world champion is another who will sometimes take the gloves off, though less regularly, and we can’t see much of a pattern.