Castelli Pioggia Winter Glove part 2

I told you that I would provide you a review of the gloves I recently purchased. Well they came in time for me to test them out on a couple of short 1 hour rides. My first impression when I received them were that they were decent looking, though much more bulky than my older gloves. Yep, these were like ski gloves The glove's liner is fleece and feels nice and soft when you put your fingers inside. I got a large and they fit like med-large, which was perfect for me as I didn't want alot of bulk at the finger tips. Like any decent glove, it's warm if there is extra space for trapping air. The Pioggia has a bit of bulk with the internal fleece glove lining and the outer windproof shell. It was about 25 degrees out and my hands didn't feel overly warm nor did they feel cold. I did sweat in them, however because it's fleece, the glove didn't feel wet, except when I took them off. At that time it pretty much was like pulling your gloves inside out. There is no stitching to keep the fingers in place with the outer shell. I guess the good thing is that you could pull it out to dry quicker and you can wash just the lining part.
My over all opinion is that this glove provides good warmth but at a cost of bulkiness. I actually prefer my cheap Novara gloves as they are much thinner and are decently warm when riding in 30+ degree weather. So my Pioggia gloves will be used when I'm a spectator for cold events and when it's below 25 degrees otherwise my holey Novara gloves are just fine.

Recap at the Point: Hard ride, for the most part extremely fast. My ass is in pain. Decent sprints and thanks to my teammate Pete, he led me out at the right time to take the sprint. I'm in no sprinting shape yet, however it was a good feeling to know it's still there. I kind of died after the second time we sprinted and the other guys continued to go hard at 12:58. I was on my warm down lap getting ready to ride back to work. However, I have to say, I'm impressed by all of the power out there so early in the season. I'm wondering if I should sandbag and focus on peaking in the later summer instead, when everyone's burned out. I think all of this social networking through these blogs and listservs are really creating a stir out there. Everyone is strong so early!