rsbob 

Not a question to solve world peace, but the world tour riders seem to have abandoned wearing gloves. Maybe it is archaic to want extra cushion and hand protection if you hit the deck, but what gives? Too macho for those things? Cost cutting? Just not necessary?

Duragrouch

I quit when I couldn't get them with decent padding. I used to run Grab-Ons foam and well padded gloves. Can't find the latter, and can't fit Grab-Ons with GripShifts and oversize bar ends. Currently looking to install more raised aero bars with wider forearm pads, so I can use them to take pressure off hands most of the time, if I'm not too tucked on them.

hidetaka

I've been to multiple major bike stores looking for basic, non-padded gloves. All I want is soft leather palm and lightweight top but apparently it's just not made, everyone decided they need tons of gel and foam pads and that's all that's being sold :/

Trakhak

Having read not just the title but the entire first line of the first post, I'll answer the actual question that was asked:

I began noticing it about two or three years ago - certainly not much longer than that. You'd think that the sponsors or the UCI or both would have mandated glove use (the sponsors for the additional bit of branding, the UCI just because they can), but evidently that's not the case.

A few riders who had stopped using gloves have resumed wearing them, from what I've seen or read, maybe because they or a teammate or a friend in the peloton who had also given up wearing gloves had crashed and scraped their palms badly.

There is or was also a new fashion where bottles/bidons are pulled out of cages with the hand oriented thumb down, such that they're already upside down when raised to the mouth. Don't know that it's actually more convenient, but it looks cool.

Edit:

Looking forward to posts from a couple of the usual suspects, who will say that those World Tour riders who have chucked their gloves did so in a desperate attempt to reduce the overall weight of the package of rider plus bike. It's more evidence, or so the reasoning will run, that the riders hate the crushingly heavy aero-oriented disk-brake-equipped bikes that they're being forced to struggle up climbs on.

Maybe it's a strike: we'll go back to wearing team logo gloves when we're once again allowed to ride bikes with lightweight frames, rim brakes, and tubular tires.

PeteHski

It’s an interesting observation. I would have thought most, if not all, the pros would have experienced a palm scrape at some point in their life. That alone makes gloves worth wearing IMHO. I just wear simple, non-padded, fingerless gloves for road riding. I find them less sweaty than bare hands and of course they offer some skin protection.

So I do wonder what their thinking is here?

chaadster

I’ve also noticed the absence of gloves in the pro ranks and wondered about it, too, but I’ve no idea why it’s happening.

It does seem like a simple safety measure, but maybe the pros figure if they go down, they’ll have bigger problems than scraped up palms. I dunno…I’ve been there myself with road rash on the hands, and it wasn’t nice, so I wear gloves.

I also wear gloves because I get sweaty and snotty, so it’s nice to keep tidy with a little wipe with a glove.

Bar tape is so good these days, though, that I can understand how, if crash risk isn’t a factor, you might wonder why you need gloves. The tapes feel great and offer tremendous grip and comfort.

As an aside, my preferred gloves are the MAAP with the Elastic Interface Race model palm, but I’ve also got a couple of pairs of Supacaz which are unpadded and very thin palmed.

znomit

Don't forget the aerodynamics!

msu2001la

Bar tape has plenty of padding and grip these days. I suspect most pro riders just don't see a need for gloves, and it seems easier to fish stuff out of jersey pockets and grab bottles, etc with bare hands.

I doubt pro riders are really worried about protecting their palms from hand scrapes. This has always seemed like a weird reason to wear cycling gloves.

seypat

Who knows? It could be a fashion statement, a protest, a safety issue, or some other reason. Do the shifters use pressure plates/switches/buttons? A glove could take some sensitivity away from that process. If I had to take a wild guess, that would be the reason.

eduskator

Pogy wears them.

Trakhak

He's one of the guys who had stopped wearing them but changed his mind.

BillyD

I won't care until I can't find some for myself.

eduskator

His provider was probably out of the pink ones!

TMonk

I don't like wearing gloves. I wear them when it's cold or when MTB'ing, but generally I'd rather feel bare hands on the bars. I've raced road bikes hundreds of times and have had scraped palms a couple of times - it sucks. I'm usually quite vigilant about wearing gloves for some while after that, until I get lazy again

tFUnK

My guess is gloves make it slightly more difficult to get warmers or jackets off while on the bike. Might also impact bottle and musette pickups in feed zones.

Personally I like gloves for the UV protection, wiping sweat off my face, and in case I take a tumble. Padding - nice to have but not the driving reason to wear gloves for me.

What I don't like about gloves are that they wear out over time, the ones with Velcro closures at the wrist get stuck to my warmers, and it's harder to get jackets and warmers on/off.

crazyravr

The very firs time you have a fall and the palms of your hands make contact with pavement, you will go back to gloves real quick. Its the only reason I wear them, but they have to be without any padding or I get numb hands. Hand Up gloves are great for this reason.

justin1138

What races are y'all watching where they don't wear gloves? Screen grab from yesterday's Giro stage (day behind, don't tell me what happened)

cyclezen

Pros ARE NOT "All that !"
a lot of them ride with locked elbows... usually the guys at the back ...
I never ride without gloves, even when grocery shopping...
If I'm wearing a helmet, I'm also wearing gloves and eye protection ...
Ride On
Yuri

Iride01 

I hadn't noticed the trend. But I haven't watched hardly any races this year.

Me, I use to always ride without gloves up until about 2017. Then I too got to thinking about what if I were to reach out and hit the road with my palms during a crash. So I started wearing gloves. The best gloves I ever had were a cheap pair of Bell's from Walmart. Just a half finger, glove with a full leather unpadded palm. The padded and more expensive gloves I've used since have never really been as comfortable.

However now realizing that putting my outstretched arms in front of me to catch my fall is a very bad idea, I tried going gloveless a couple years ago. In the heat my hands were too sweaty and the bar and hoods slippery. Not sure why they weren't before. But I'm back to using gloves. I really need to see if Bell still makes those simple inexpensive gloves with the full leather palm.

Why is catching your fall with outstretched arms a bad idea? Ask Mark Cavendish. When I saw him go over the bars at the previous TdF with his arm out, I knew he would be breaking his collar bone before they even reported or showed the aftermath of his fall.

tFUnK

Was he wearing gloves, though

tFUnK

Similar experience here, been on and off gloves over the years. Agree that basic is best, half finger fitting better than full (and easier to grab things, work with touch screens, etc) - I only ride full finger in the winter, and the occasional slippery bars on a hot day without gloves.

Eric F 

Check out Pactimo's gloves (www.pactimo.com) Minimal palm padding, lightweight back, many color options. I have a couple pair, and I've been happy with them.

Reflector Guy

I'm always finding the larger sizes of gloves are sold out (and I don't even have very big hands). So I usually ride gloveless.

rsbob 

I also use gloves to wipe sweat from brow and to sweep tires after running through glass. Can be done with bare hands too, but….

Maelochs

I have experimented with not wearing gloves lately---because at my age, it is easy to forget things. I feel a little cooler (wind over the hands, which are replete with nerve endings) and I wrap well enough not to need a lot of padding .... comfort-wise it is a toss-up.

Riders hopefully have learned by World Tour levels, not to waste the flesh of their palms trying to hold back the force of a crash ... do that once, and you will know why (I have gotten palm-rash with gloves ... the gloves got eaten first and worst.) I just don't reach out when falling any more ... my collarbones, wrists, and elbows are too fragile.

I assume most pros are aware that in wrecks, at speed, it is hips and the outsides of limbs which tend to get eaten by pavement, and thus don't buy the myth of glove protection (Big Glove has you all in its control ... ) And prefer the airflow.

This is a question someone needs to post on actual World Tour riders' websites or Twit-feeds.