At 4:40 on a 28-degree January morning, Christian Edstrom readied for his commute from Chappaqua, N.Y., to downtown Manhattan.

Having sheathed his legs in NASA-worthy Capo bib shorts — woven from high-tech fibers that compress leg muscles to minimize fatigue — he pulled on a pair of winter cycling tights lined with fleece from the waist to the thighs. Next came over-the-calf Smartwool ski socks under Sidi Genius 5.5 shoes strategically packed with chemical toe warmers. To shield his torso, he wore a wool base layer under an Italian long-sleeve racing jersey, and a windproof vest reinforced in front to block freezing gusts and meshed in the back to vent excess heat. On his head, an Assos Fuguhelm racing cap with vents on top to minimize sweating, and a pair of Oakley Jawbones sunglasses. The final touch: a pair of $19 insulated work gloves, coated with beeswax to make them water resistant.

Fastening his helmet, Mr. Edstrom stepped outside and into early-morning indigo. In a minute he was rolling down the driveway of his snow-covered Cape-style house, his headlights aglow, on a 40-mile journey to his workplace, JPMorgan, at One Chase Manhattan Plaza, a trip he would make entirely on a Zanconato cyclocross bicycle.

Mr. Edstrom, who works in JPMorgan’s operations division, bicycles round trip to work at least twice a week, logging approximately 600 miles a month. He averages 17 miles an hour and arrives at work by about 7 a.m. “The traffic in Lower Manhattan kills my time,” he said. When he doesn’t ride, he passes for an ordinary commuter, and takes Metro-North into Grand Central Terminal.