Rollerskiing fashion files

Thu, Nov  5, 2009 - By Justin Demers

From the great xcottawa website come the most amazing articles...

The Fall usually coincides with the time of year where skiers wear their dullest attire.  Most including myself do not wear our racing suits for rollerskiing because the risk of tumbling down and ripping the suit with all the wet pavement and leaves is too great.  I have a few rollerski tights that have inelastic lycra, holes and bursting seams around the ankles (from putting them on too quickly while in a hurry balancing on my foot surrounded by the chaos of a hotel room while at a training camp or race).  These measures are taken to preserve my racing suit and parade it in the winter or while running.

This Halloween weekend prompted me to brighten up the atmosphere with all the fallen leaves and usually grey skies.  We just received our brand new cherry red, rocket fast suits but I would not have been able to bear crashing it on the first wear.  Here was the alternative.

I made a trip to my local American Apparel which carries exquisite items of clothing.  I only learned about the place about 2 months ago and what a discovery it was.  I had been looking for some outlandish tights for 2 years and this place has everything I could have hoped for.  After a little debating I opted for the boa textured metallic gold tight.

Before you all assume that this is a purely cosmetic piece of clothing I want you all to recall how many times you have rollerskied or run at night.  Whether in the Fall or Summer night training is a reality for most of us.  The worst of us go ninja style but there are responsible people who use lights.  Enter xc training fashion that combines safety and style like nothing else.  Safe and stylish are no longer mutually exclusive descriptions of one's training outfit.

A little time trial was the perfect occasion to wear these for the first time.  As the Deputy Fashion police on XC Ottawa I unfortunately had to arrest Alana Thomas, Head of Fashion Police for obvious reasons.  Here is the evidence.

Look at that: black on black, how dull.  At least she consistently wore red everywhere else.  Now compare to the gold tights.  You can tell who's about to be promoted and demoted if this keeps up.

 

Redeeming point for Alana, her metallic Alpina boots with in vogue carbon fiber dethrone my old now rollerski specific Salomons.  It is not very obvious in the picture but my boots are starting to feel the 5 plus years of skiing and rollerskiing in them.  We would have an even matchup if I had pulled out my winter boots.

Nic Clifford, my photograph here, later confirmed the distracting and intimidating nature a good set of tights after coming down a hill where he pointed out and I quote 'I could see the reflection of my face in your butt and that's when I decided it wasn't worth drafting'.  Other comments seem to indicate that the opposite would be true of women racers.  Fortunately I don't have to race against them.