Protecting the Undercarriage While Cycling Long Distance

One thing we needed to be concerned about when cycling longer distances than we were used to — 45 to 55 km per day — was the health of our nether regions.

Everything I read suggested that there’s nothing that can shut a cycle tour faster and more definitively than the chafing, pressure sores, and infections that can result from not paying attention.

So we paid attention.

We both got outfitted with cycling shorts from Outer Limit before we left, and supplemented with another pair from Kameo in Liège. These are padded shorts that fit tightly. You wear them right against your skin, with no underwear, and they serve to cushion your sit bones and reduce chafing. 

Wearing them off the bike feels like wearing an ill-fitting diaper; wearing them on the bike is much more comfortable than just wearing street clothes.

Between cycle shorts and skin we lubed up, several times a day, with a healthy spread of chamois cream—also from Outer Limit—in any area that might experience chafing. 

I was very liberal with the chamois cream: I slathered it everywhere.

That we finished the ride is a testament to the fact that it all worked.

After day one I did have a little sensitivity in the “apex of the intergluteal cleft,” and I jumped right on this with an application of Inotyol zinc oxide cream—the pharmacist said “it’s the one grandmother’s have always trusted,” and I was sold. The issue didn’t return.

The day after the tour ended, I was afraid I was developing a pressure sore, and I applied zinc oxide cream there too, and that seemed to address it.

Managing all of this required a suspension of disbelief after a lifetime of thinking cyclists wearing cycle shorts were just showing off (and weird looking). I’m glad I was able to muster that, as the tour that resulted was all the better for it. 

Thanks to our pro cycling friends Cynthia and Matt for advice and counsel.