Everyone has to decide for themselves whether hairy or clean-shaven calves suit their style better. From a sports science perspective, there is a reason for shaving, and it has nothing to do with aerodynamics or looks. Sports medicine says that once you reach a certain level of exertion, you produce sweat on your legs. This depends less on the level of training and more on the hardness (load over 2 - 4 mmol lactate), the type of muscle fibre, the local climate and the duration of the load. Sweat serves to cool down the leg muscles: If you ride at 200 watts, a 1000-watt bulb burns in your body - this energy is released by the muscles. If sweat drips from your hair, the cooling effect is lost. The sweat has to evaporate on the skin. The evaporative cooling cools down the muscle motor.
With shaved legs, you save on fluid/drinking and can push harder and longer. This applies to all strenuous exercise with sweat production on the legs - not just cycling.
Do shaved legs make you faster?
The guys from Specialized investigated this question and tested it in their in-house wind tunnel. The results relate to road cycling, but a 70-second time gain over 40 kilometres speaks for itself - and that's only because you don't have any fur on your legs. Watch the video for yourself. Everyone has to decide for themselves what they think. There are also colleagues in the BIKE editorial team who shave diligently, others wear leg fur.
