Why bike fit maybe not enough? Why even when you do top-of-the-line pressure mapping and motion analysis with good fitter you are still no 100% optimal on your bike? And how much fluctuations in your bike set-up may influence your pedaling efficiency? Well… you are about to find out!

As a endurance coach, I'm a great believer in data. And that everything that can be measured can be improved. This can (and honestly should) be applied to everything related to endurance sports. Your diet, your power, your performance on the bike and without a shadow of a doubt your bike-fit as well. So, with the same mentality, I've approached one of my athletes, who were about to come back after 2 years off the bike after having a child.

ATHLETE BACKGROUND

To give you a brief insight into her background:

• Over her carrier she has several national champion titles in 3x TT, 2x XCM, 1x XCO

• She has been ranked Nr.5 in the world in XCM ranking

• Finished 12th in European Championship in XCM

• Raced semi-professionally in Belgium for 3 years

• Won Belgian regional Championship two times

So she was quite an accomplished rider by the time she had her first child. Getting after 2 years almost entirely off the bike is a tough task as there are a lot of variables that have changed and needed to take into account. Her goal was to race time-trial nationals and without a shadow of a doubt race only to win. And if everything went well, then to race European Championships and maybe something else…

 At the start of the year, we sat down to map out the training plan for the whole racing year. This is not very typical, because I usually do it as soon as the current season has come to a close, but this time was a bit more special. One of the big things to take into account was her bike fit. After having a child, women's body is subject to change, and her's was no exception. We had to find an appropriate saddle and change shoes, swap the cranks for shorter ones, and just let her be comfortable on the bike.

ADVANCED BIKE FITTING

We had planned on a big build training block where she was supposed to go for a training camp for 4 weeks. Briefly, before that, I managed to find an excellent fitting specialist in Berlin, who used 3D motion capture system as well as a pressure mapping system. All this and excellent credentials would serve as an excellent basis to have an appropriate bike fit. So she flew to Berlin taking her bike with her, so it could be assessed and adjusted by the fitter. After 4 days she came back with a new bike fit, new saddle, and new insoles and good feeling about the fit.

Using the best-in-business pressure mapping system on the saddle and in the insoles of the shoes, the fitter was able to clearly identify that she was sitting too high.  She was producing the most significant power in her pedal stroke at the bottom of it (about 5 o'clock), which is sub-optimal, to say the least. By lowering her saddle quite considerably, he was able to make significant changes, and she was producing the biggest power at her 1 o'clock in no time. Everything was measured and evaluated, so everything should be excellent, right?! Nope or only in part. After about a week she took off and went to Spain for a training camp. As almost all the sessions before that were done indoors, this was the first time we could see how new fit works in real-world conditions. The saddle was right, insoles were working great, and the overall feeling was on pair with that.

DEAD SPOT SCORE PROBLEM

Almost straight from the get-go, we started to use Leomo Type-R. The first week was just to collect data, so no prescriptions were made, which could have altered her pedaling style or position on the bike. Besides that, she just had to ride her bike for a bit to get used to riding it outside. I did have data from indoor sessions, but like everything – it was not specific to what she was preparing for. From indoor sessions, I already knew that she had a very "clean" pedaling technique – dead spot score was very low.

On the second week, we started to perform different tests to get good benchmark numbers.

Data from the hill climb test showed that the right leg is completely off at an average of 31.9 DSS score. Usually, when riding with a higher power helps to clear the pedal stroke because the ride is more focused on pedaling and applying constant pressure. Therefore I typically look at segments of the ride where the athlete has gone at least at his or her threshold. As you can see in her case, the difference is massive. She is "losing" power on her most important part of the pedal stroke. We need to take into account that the DSS profile can be different for one rider when an athlete is climbing or riding on the flat. Even on a relatively simple and long endurance ride, her numbers were bad, and something needed to change.

Looking at this and other similar rides, it was clear, that when she "soft-pedals" or is riding below her threshold right leg is producing more DSS that left leg from the test. It gave a clear hint that the body was self-adjusting at more significant power outputs and become as economical as possible. But DSS scores from longer endurance rides and the point of the pedal stroke where they occurred showed that the problem was current most probably in her saddle height.

How much difference can 5mm make?

After about a week of riding, I suggested her to make slight changes to her current saddle height to see how this effects numbers. She raised her saddle exactly 5mm not changing anything else. This is what happened!

Even when we look at the whole training and not just the part that has a higher power, the picture has changed dramatically.

DSS score for the whole ride has gone down to 0.9 for left leg and 1.0 for the right leg. Besides that, with this small tweak, we ware able to change the allocation of dead spots. Now there are more inline of the baseline we had at the beginning. In her case, we would need to play around the saddle high to find where she is most effective in her pedal stroke. In the future, this will come very handy when she starts to ride her TT bike, where DSS will have to be optimized as well as her and torso and hip angle.

Takeaway

• Leomo is indispensable for verifying athletes bike fit position outside when racing or in a real training environment.

• Saddle high using static fitting, even when using pressure mapping, can lead to a significant DSS when riding outside or when in the racing position, therefore Leomo can play an important role when it comes to finetuning one's bike fit.

• Type-R can be used for injury prevention no only for increasing performance. I'll talk about this in my next blog post.

You can find out more about Leomo TYPE-R Coaching Service from our certified coaches there.

Author,
JANIS MUSINS
Train2Win Endurance Coaching Head Coach

 Find out more about Train2Win Endurance Coaching