Latest / Zone2Speak Podcast / Building Champions: John Wakefield on Coaching, Bike Fit & Performance in Pro Cycling

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Building Champions: John Wakefield on Coaching, Bike Fit & Performance in Pro Cycling · Zone2Speak Podcast

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Now, let's get into the episode.
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Welcome back to ZONETOSPEAK. On this episode, I sit down with John Wakefield,
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Managing Director of Science to Sport and Director of Development at Bora Hensgore.
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John has spent years at the forefront of high-performance cycling,
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working with some of the best athletes in the world.
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From his expertise in bike fitting, training, and sports science to developing,
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young talent, he knows what it takes to turn riders into champions.
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John has also been part of some of the biggest moments in pro cycling,
3:00
including his time at UAE Team Emirates, where he worked closely with none other
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than Tadej Bogachar, helping him on his way to back-to-back Tour de France victories.
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I will dive into what it takes to win the biggest race in the world,
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twice, the mindset of a champion, and the evolution of the sport from the inside.
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So let's get into it. Welcome to Zon to Speak, John.
3:25
Thank you for having me. Yeah, it's a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you for feeding
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us into your busy schedule.
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So tell me, how was working with Tadej Pogacar behind the scenes?
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Is he, what makes him so special compared to other riders?
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Obviously from a physiological point he
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obviously has some special attributes but if
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you just take it as a I think as a person yes
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obviously very professional in what he does his
3:55
application to his job if you want to call it that
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but he's also a really good human.
4:01
Being you know so from that side I
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think that carries over his fun factor his you
4:08
know how he treats people how he looks at people and and
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you know in that environment i think you know
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that helps him have a really good
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support system around him and have people want to support
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him and also at the same time it helps you
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as as whatever you're doing whether you help
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him from the sonia side as a masseuse or
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whether you are managing him it definitely creates an
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environment where you yourself have to bring out the best
4:35
in yourself you know to to be able to apply whatever
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big or small factor that that
4:40
you need to bring to that environment but he's
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yeah he's a really easygoing guy definitely what
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you see is is what you get
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with him yeah i mean he's so charismatic
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you can't help but love the guy you know
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because they have we have had so many champions that have a
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fan base obviously but they're the haters but
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there's no one can say anything about that day i mean
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he's just so lovable right i think you
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know if you had to find something to you know hate is a strong word but dislike
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about him is that you know he wins a lot yeah exactly it's your worst thing
5:19
yeah stop winning you know come on you know give somebody else a chance you
5:24
know so i think if you really had to go, I'll find one negative,
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I suppose that that's what it would be.
5:30
And I think you were with the UAE Emirates team when he was young talent.
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When did the team realize he was capable of winning?
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The Tour de France? Yeah, so you knew he was capable of winning and this is
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just my personal experience was when he won Algarve in 2019.
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I remember it was the final climb and Alaphilippe had gone up the road and it
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caused panic, obviously, because it was Alaphilippe, you know.
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And what also comes down to his nature, he was very calm and he just rode his
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own pace and he landed up winning.
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You know, he didn't lose enough time. He didn't win the stage,
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but he definitely clawed back the time that he lost and he won the stage.
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And then you knew, then he went to Tour of California and then he went to the
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Vuelta and he won two stages and he finished third in his first Grand Tour.
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Then, you know, that was sort of your end result of knowing,
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okay, there's definitely something very special here.
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He went to the Tour that next year. It wasn't to win.
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I mean, 2020, you know, we had a different goal. It was top five, possibly a podium.
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But by the second rest day, or your final rest day, was when we kind of,
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you know, it was a little bit evident to say, hey, we could possibly win this.
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And a lot goes into that, but, you know, that's when a little bit that switch
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kind of got turned on and it was, hey, we can maybe have a really good go at this.
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And how intense was when he started to win? How intense was the pressure leading
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up to winning Tour de France?
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On that 2022, it wasn't a huge pressure value to win. It was more to go out and do the best you can.
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But as I said from that second rest day, we can give this a go,
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but there wasn't pressure to win it.
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The pressure, I would say, probably came naturally upon himself,
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but there wasn't really pressure from the team to say, okay,
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well, going into the final week, you have to win this.
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But obviously that final day of the TT which is you know almost historical on
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how that happened there was obviously a lot of a lot of nerves and pressure going on on that day so,
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And how it is managing such a young talent, not just today, but in general,
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because you work with a lot of top athletes.
7:52
Yeah, the youngsters, if you want to call it now, are,
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you know, what I think is definitely lost is that, you know,
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you're still sitting with a very young 18, 19, 20-year-old personality,
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but you want them to perform like an adult, you know, so that judging,
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or not judging, But that sort of balance between, yes, you're dealing with a
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kid, and I say that respectfully, but you want a top-level seasoned athlete
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in terms of physiology and performance.
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So, in some cases, it's a very delicate and busy management schedule around
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a kid like that because they are fragile possibly mentally.
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Yes, they have the physiological attributes, but mentally, they're just not
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there. You know, they've never left home, they've, you know,
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they've never experienced the world.
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And then you're asking them to go on the road for possibly, you know,
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130 days of the year, living out of hotels, having high pressure volume.
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It's definitely a work in progress. Some of them fall naturally into it,
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but then some of them you really need to kind of have a very slow development process on that.
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Yeah, all that you said. And also the other thing that I think about is also
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the media, you know, because they
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have to deal with the media and answer questions and it can't be easy.
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No, and there's also obviously expectations,
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you know, especially now with everything is younger and younger.
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You know, it's like, okay, this guy's come in, it's whatever,
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Michael Smith and he's come in and he's expected to win.
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And if he possibly doesn't win or do as well as what the general public expected
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him to do, then there's a lot of scrutiny on why and how.
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And when you start scrutinizing young kids or young minds, it can potentially
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go the other way and you never see them again. Yeah, yeah.
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So you are Director of Development at Borehens Gore now. What is that role like?
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Yeah, in a nutshell, it's actually a really good role.
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I'm enjoying it and there's many different aspects to it. So there's obviously
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the performance side, but there's also the human side.
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And then there's the business side of creating an actual development program.
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So it's kind of quite a few hats.
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Also learned that I need to not deal with the staff, many staff and personalities.
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But in saying that, the outcome essentially is to identify young talent,
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so that 15, 16, 17, 18-year-old category, and develop them into,
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you know, whether it's a classics winner, whether it's by 2030 a Tour de France champion, etc.
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And that is sort of the goal and process of what that project is.
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Wow, that's really cool. And are there any specific qualities or mindsets that
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you are looking for to separate good riders from future stars?
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Yeah, our scouting program, I would say, is pretty rigorous.
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And I, you know, not just saying it because it's ours, but I do believe that
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we're really on the forefront of what we do with regards to that and protocols.
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So, it's looking at everything from the mental stability, the mental focus,
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the mental age of an athlete to obviously physiological, you know,
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in terms of do we believe that this athlete can develop?
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Are they at a very good, are they at a higher level now?
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Is there room for that development?
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And obviously, everything from mental injury processes, etc.
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So, it's quite a robust scouting application that we do do with athletes.
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So it's not just looking at them going, oh, this rider is getting really good
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results and he has really good power.
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Yes, it's an important factor, but it's not everything.
11:37
Got it. Yeah, I think the only little window that most of us see on Scouting
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Talent is the Zwift Academy on YouTube.
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Correct. So that definitely is one area that you do try to identify riders on,
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but it goes obviously all the way to speaking to agents. We have scouts that go to races, etc.
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So it's not just one specific thing.
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Okay okay so you guys
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go like you're saying you have scouts you go like to crit races
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and other road races around the world
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around the world yeah correct okay cool
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any success stories that you have
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witnessed in this talent development that you
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could share i would probably say florian lipovitz
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is one of them he also came a little bit from outside the
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normal cycling mold he came from like ski
12:31
mo and ski touring and stuff and started
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riding a bicycle a little bit late as well and
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you know the team had identified him kind of
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got got him got him onto the team and
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signed him after a bit of a process and yeah really successfully you know won
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some week-long stage races he did his first grand tour now in august and he
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finished seventh overall on gc so for him if i say you know from one of the ones that stand out.
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I feel that that is definitely one of them, especially from an unconventional cycling approach.
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And do you think he's one of the other ones besides Roglic that you see as GC in big tours?
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Yeah, definitely. And also the kind of longer five, seven, eight-day stage races
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like hypothetically Adorfinet, you know, Torino, Adriatico, et cetera.
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And, sorry, I don't know when you joined Borough Handscore, but have you seen
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any change since Red Bull joined the team?
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Yeah, I joined the team for the 2023 season, so 23-24.
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And so, yes, there's definitely changes that had come. You know, there was nothing.
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The team was really good before, you know, but you have sort of limitations
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on what we had access to and what we could do.
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And with Red Bull, you know, we've now broadened that scope and we've been able
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to get access or, you know, a knowledgeable base that we didn't really potentially
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were able to have before.
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So, you know, when you combine both of those parties together,
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it's really been fantastic so far. Wonderful, wonderful.
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So let's talk a little bit about coaching.
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What have worked with some of the world top riders that you have worked with
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some of the top cyclists in the world? What drew you into coaching?
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I don't actually know. It wasn't really coaching itself.
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I had quite a bad motocross accident and I had to do quite extensive rehabilitation from it.
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And while I was doing the rehabilitation, I was like, as weird as it sounded,
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but I really, although I didn't get on with the gentleman that was doing my
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rehabilitation, we definitely clashed on the personality.
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I really was inspired by what he knew and what he did with me to get me back
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and I was just like this is what I want to do but I didn't really know what
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but it was more that environment and.
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Because of the the injury that I was that I had I couldn't race motocross anymore
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and a friend of mine said oh would you just kind of help coach me or train me
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essentially is what it was because I I enjoyed the training aspect of sport
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a little bit more than the actual racing side of it.
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And from that, it grew very big on the motocross side.
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I raced a mountain bike and I raced a road bike. And then I met another gentleman,
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and he's my business partner.
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And he said to me, what about doing cycling coaching?
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And I was like, okay, let's see what it's about. And then here I am today.
15:54
So yeah that's uh 20 years later that that's where i am today awesome and look at look what
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have you done i mean you know how many victories how
16:05
many you know talent you have developed it's incredible yeah so yeah that that's
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sort of how it happened it happened from a broken back and a broken leg and
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yeah wow wow and what do you think about amateurs copying what pros are doing.
16:23
One example I have is when it came out that Pogacar was riding a 165 crank,
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everybody went out there wanting a 165 crank.
16:33
Yeah, they did, especially from our business in Girona.
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So there it's like, yes, you take knowledge, you understand.
16:44
It's fantastic. People want to better themselves, so I'm more insupportive for that.
16:51
But, and here's a but where it comes from, is that just because Tade rides a
16:55
165 crank or he rides this saddle, it doesn't mean that it works for everyone.
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And that's what people don't under don't understand they
17:04
see art had x y and z or you know
17:07
primosh had x y and z improvement because he
17:10
did this it'll automatically apply to myself where it
17:13
doesn't you know and what they don't understand is typically should
17:17
you know primosh go to it or any rider go
17:20
of that level go to a shorter crank there's reasoning
17:24
behind it and there's testing that had been done they didn't
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just go to their bike shop and tell the guy to put a 165 crank
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on you know so yeah from
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that side it's you know if i just go on the which is
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really a big thing that we have at the moment especially in terms
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of from our biomechanical side at the company is
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that everybody just wants shorter cranks now and you kind of say to them sure
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we'll do this but you do understand that it's not always going to come out in
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a positive outcome and that's what people don't understand yeah that makes sense
17:54
and i was getting a new bike custom-made around that time,
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and I am kind of little, and then I have a 165 crank,
18:05
and I couldn't find anything because it was all sold out. Correct.
18:10
That's my size, people. Leave the 165 crank away.
18:14
You know, it would have been great to get some pre-warning from that,
18:19
and I would have bought a whole bunch of 165 cranks and made millions.
18:23
Yep, yep.
18:25
And so that brings me to bike fitting. You have an awesome spot here in Girona,
18:31
Science2Sport. You did my bike fit and I'm so, so, so comfortable.
18:36
It was the first time actually that I did a bike fitting with the saddle pressure.
18:42
Yes. And I think, yeah, yeah, I really loved it.
18:46
And most people think, you know, having a bike fit is not worth it.
18:50
You know, I mean, amateurs or people getting into the sports think,
18:53
oh, you know, it's so much money just to adjust my saddle height.
18:57
But there's so much more that goes into it. Can you talk a little bit? Sure.
19:02
You know, so what you said is actually true, is that people think I won't get
19:09
a bike fit. I won't spend whatever the amount is on a good bike fit,
19:12
but I'll go and spend like 7,000 euros on carbon fiber wheels thinking I'll go better.
19:18
Where you're saying, okay, but if you're uncomfortable or you have problems,
19:22
but worst case scenario, you have some kind of medical problems because of a
19:25
bad bike fit, your carbon wheels aren't really going to go that fast.
19:27
So, you know, from that side, what we do, and I can't speak for many other bike
19:33
fitters around, but, you know, what we do is kind of a full system.
19:37
So we take, you know, a physiological measurement from you.
19:42
So, you know, first off, we take your medical history. So have you come from injuries?
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What are they? Where are you? If there have been injuries, processes,
19:50
are you doing rehabilitation, et cetera, or if it's everything is fine.
19:54
And then we go through, you know, as I said, some physiological measurements
19:58
like leg length, full leg length, upper lower leg length. We do flexibility.
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We do arm length and we take a
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lot of your history into account and then from
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that obviously is where we then start your your
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bike foot process going forward from that and yes you
20:16
know in today's times you know aerodynamics is a very strong word but what we
20:22
obviously try to get you into is yes you want to have that aerodynamic point
20:26
but also aerodynamics whether it's a road bike or a tt bike is only as good
20:31
as you can hold that position for as long as you can.
20:35
So if you can't really hold it for very long, there is no aerodynamics.
20:39
That position goes away. So what we try to do is obviously have comfort.
20:44
Your power delivery is good and your economy on the bike is good.
20:48
And that's what we look for.
20:50
And obviously, if you do have medical issues,
20:53
it may be an ongoing process where while you get better or you are improving from the injury side,
20:59
we adjust the bike as we go to that final position of
21:02
what we want yeah no i totally agree
21:05
i always say comfort is speed yeah
21:09
you you just can't be super
21:12
aggressive and like you said and then you cannot hold the
21:14
position you're uncomfortable you're in pain maybe you even get an
21:17
injury is that possible yeah correct definitely
21:20
you know so you know going back
21:23
to that it's you know you You can have hypothetically if it's a TT biker CDA
21:28
or say 0.16 but if you can't hold it you land up having 0.19 anyway so you land
21:34
up going slower so rather be powerful at 0.18 as an example and be able to hold
21:40
that position for the full duration of your TT effort.
21:44
Yeah. What are some of the top mistakes cyclists make with their bike fit?
21:51
Yeah, going too aggressive is definitely one of them.
21:54
And then the other side is when they're trying to find a position is what we
21:59
find is that, say they feel, oh, I'm uncomfortable.
22:02
They won't do a small change of one thing at any given time.
22:07
So they'll lower the saddle as an example they'll change
22:11
that the drop or the reach and they'll put a different stem
22:13
on and they're doing two three four things at one time to try find that comfortable
22:17
position but the problem comes then is is that which one was the right one and
22:23
which one was the wrong one you know so you kind of find out that they get really
22:27
and it's it's normal they just get very lost in translation,
22:31
so you don't know where the problem is coming
22:34
from you know so what we say is you know if you're
22:37
feeling a bit funny on the saddle just make a change on the
22:40
saddle don't do the front end don't do
22:43
the back you know don't don't do all these changes in one
22:45
go and when you do do changes do very
22:48
small changes at a time you know don't go from unless it's you know a super
22:54
super high saddle but don't go from you know change like one centimeter changes
22:59
at a time you know do small increments test it see how it feels and then and
23:03
then make if need be make another change from there,
23:07
yeah that's good advice it makes sense change one thing at a time and slowly.
23:12
Because then if you change everything you don't know what improved or
23:14
what got worse yeah it'd be hard to tell yeah which is often the case and and
23:19
you know when you speak to someone you say okay what did you do and they have
23:23
like this phone book of of changes they made out on the road and you like now
23:27
we need to start from day one again yeah yeah yeah you talked a little bit about aerodynamics.
23:35
What role does it play in bike feeding on pro versus amateur?
23:40
Is that a difference or it depends on the physiology of the rider?
23:45
It's really kind of what you want out of the bike. You know,
23:49
so if I take a pro who is looking, you know, for those small gains and the,
23:55
job revolves around this yes you
23:58
you try get that whatever sweet spot between
24:01
what is aerodynamic and what is is you know sustainable you
24:05
know if it's just a recreational cyclist but maybe they do
24:09
races and they're competitive within that amateur environment
24:12
that outcome is the same of what
24:15
you're trying to do maybe at a lesser extent
24:18
just because of how their body is and what they're
24:21
doing from a racing perspective and their age comes into
24:24
account but then also all the way back to
24:27
you know if i take an amateur cyclist like myself i just
24:29
want to be comfy on the bike and be able to go ride you know
24:32
so from that side it's very different to like a racing amateur or a racing pro
24:37
or just you know someone that just likes to go ride their bike you know so you
24:41
your your fit is based around exactly that on on what their outcome is and what
24:46
they would like and what is capable in terms of their body. Yeah, yeah.
24:52
I like to do endurance. So on my gravel bikes, for example, I have my handlebar
24:57
much higher than my road bike.
24:59
Yeah, for sure. It's a little bit more aggressive because I'm shorter time when
25:03
I go up Elzangers or something.
25:06
It's just quicker rides. Yeah, yeah. Correct.
25:10
And how does a proper fit improve power output,
25:14
endurance and comfort but especially
25:18
on power yeah so on power obviously if
25:21
you have a an optimal position on your bike your
25:24
power delivery is is better your application
25:28
to power and obviously your economy is better on the bike so your time to exertion
25:32
or your fatigue is is less and that's essentially you know coming down to yeah
25:39
coming coming down to what is definitely a more correct position versus something,
25:45
as we've almost just said, that is not sustainable.
25:47
So, you know, at the end of the day, if you can produce power for longer with
25:51
less fatigue, that is your optimal position or a optimal position.
25:57
And do different body types or flexibility levels require different fits?
26:03
Yeah, definitely. You know, the more flexibility you have, you can go more aggressive on a bike.
26:09
So because you have that range of motion, also saddle height comes into play
26:14
if you have a really tight set of hamstrings, you're also very limited in terms
26:19
of what you can do with saddle height.
26:21
Because if you have a high saddle, you know, over time that hamstring wants
26:25
to shorten and the easiest way to shorten the hamstring, if it's not by the
26:28
range, is by posteriorly rotating your pelvis.
26:32
You know, when you posteriorly rotate your pelvis, you shut off or limit hamstring
26:37
and And glute recruitment, which is, you know, one of your direct effects on power.
26:42
So, don't run a super high saddle if you have tight hamstrings.
26:46
And then also, you also do have kind of, if you're stretching the hamstring
26:49
all the time, you do have some hamstring pain, et cetera.
26:52
Got it, yeah. And I guess those warm-ups and pre-ride and mobility stretching
27:00
post-ride make also a huge difference for injury prevention.
27:05
Yeah, definitely post-ride. And you want to have flexibility on a bike,
27:09
you know. It is really important.
27:12
Have you seen any commonality in injuries caused by poor bike fits or lack thereof?
27:19
Yeah there's quite like quite a
27:22
few obviously you know one of the most common i would
27:25
say injuries or discomforts that you have is saddle sores especially
27:28
if you're spending time on the bike that is a very
27:31
common injury or discomfort that that we do find and then it grew up you know
27:37
it ranges everything from you know lower back pain shoulder pain middle of your
27:43
back pain knee pain in front and at the rear of the knee,
27:50
you know, femoral, patellofemoral pain, etc.
27:52
So it ranges depending on kind of how that position that is on the bike affects the athlete.
28:00
But there are definitely knock-on effects from injury prevention that you want
28:06
to do by having a bad bike fit or fit that's not optimal.
28:11
Yeah, I had a problem before. It wasn't a bad bike fit. It was just me probably
28:15
when I traveled, put the saddle maybe too high, went putting the bike together again.
28:22
And I was doing an ultra in Rwanda and had so much knee pain.
28:27
But when you're in an ultra, the ultra brain doesn't function really well.
28:31
And I don't know why I didn't think about the saddle position.
28:35
But I was doing as a pair with my friend who is a YouTuber, Juliet Elliot.
28:40
And then looking at the videos, I was just like, oh, my gosh,
28:44
my saddle height, it's, yeah, I was like tiptoeing.
28:50
So that did it. Yeah, correct.
28:53
And that is a common problem people have is that, you know, if you are traveling
28:58
with your bike, etc., and they put it together mainly on the saddle height side, it is, it's common.
29:04
You know, whether it's too low or it maybe drops down in travel or,
29:08
you know, whether you take your seat post out and you put it back.
29:11
So there's an example. It's really important to kind of mark that however you
29:16
feel you mark it, you know, whether you measure it with a tape measure on whatever
29:20
angles and ranges you feel is good.
29:24
It is really important to have, especially if you do travel often with your bike. Yeah, yeah.
29:28
I mean, I'm kind of lucky because my bike is an extra small.
29:32
So now when I travel I try not to take the saddle out if possible I'm like don't
29:37
touch my saddle I'm so paranoid yeah.
29:41
It's it's something to be paranoid about so it's
29:44
good yeah yeah are
29:48
there any difference between road gravel and mountain bike fits
29:51
the way gravel racing from a
29:54
racing aspect the way gravel has evolved now into
29:57
how it is from from an aggressive racing style there's not a lot of difference
30:02
between a road bike and a gravel bike what is different is that your front end
30:09
needs to be slightly less aggressive a from a handling aspect you don't want
30:15
it super twitchy or narrow,
30:17
and also then because you do spend slightly longer
30:20
you know on the gravel side especially for the you know compared
30:23
to yes a world tour race etc so you
30:26
want it slightly more relaxed but other than that
30:29
it's a very similar fit the only difference
30:33
that we have seen which it's an odd one to me is and it's not in a big volume
30:39
of people but you know guys that are now wanting you know 36 narrow bars on
30:44
a gravel bike because they think it's more aero or they're running like you know aero.
30:51
Helmets and socks and stuff like that on a gravel race to
30:54
me is is super strange because you're not really going
30:56
to get the benefit of it and if you're running you know
30:59
36 narrow bars your handling goes to hell you know so from that side that much
31:06
i'm i don't really understand on the very few that that want to kind of translate
31:10
that over from road to gravel but the fitment itself is you know it's it's a very similar fitment,
31:18
less 20%, 10%.
31:20
And then obviously on a mountain bike, it is very different just purely because
31:24
of how mountain bike frames are positioning, etc.
31:28
On the bike. Makes sense. Yeah, on the graph, I don't understand either,
31:31
especially on the handling.
31:34
If the bar is more narrow, it's more aggressive, right? And you are dealing
31:38
with different terrain.
31:39
Yeah, it's more touchy. The last thing I want to do is do some of those downhills on a 36 bar.
31:44
Far yeah and how
31:46
how has technology changed the way
31:49
bike fits are done today yeah quite yeah
31:53
quite a lot you know and and something i always
31:55
say is you know all the with all this technology you can
31:59
have the best technology in the world but the fit
32:02
always comes down to the person using that technology
32:05
you know so you can take any technology and
32:08
if you know if it's not understood it's still
32:11
going to be a not really an optimal fitment so
32:15
you know taking that if we work it especially
32:18
from a kinematics point you know you get really good values and additional stuff
32:24
that you see with the kinematic cameras that you can't see obviously from a
32:29
static value but you want those two to always on an optimal fit is to correlate
32:34
for what you see kinematically is what which you see statically.
32:38
And then also, you know, if we add in, as you had mentioned,
32:41
you know, saddle pressure mapping,
32:42
it's really important. For us, that is your last fine-tuning that bike fitment
32:48
to make sure you can say, fine, static and kinematics are really good and on paper it's great.
32:55
And the subject getting the fit says, oh, I feel really good.
33:00
And then you do mapping and you realize, well, I need to make one or two little
33:04
small tweaks here to make it really optimal.
33:08
And that to me is when you combine all of it and you understand
33:12
that technology correctly you know
33:15
your fitments are really a lot more detailed than
33:19
what they were you know when you used to just you
33:22
use a plumb line and also bikes in fairness have changed a lot over the years
33:27
that you know c-tube angle isn't the same across the board anymore you know
33:31
different bikes different c-tube angles etc so you know it's it's really become
33:37
it's not just are slam the handlebar, race the saddle and away you go anymore.
33:42
You know, racing has also changed. So as that happens, you have to adapt to
33:46
fitment according. A hundred percent.
33:48
Yeah, I'm a big fan of the pressure mapping.
33:51
I loved the experience I had in your studio.
33:55
Definitely made a huge change for me. But you're absolutely right.
33:59
The knowledge, the person behind the technology doing the fit makes total difference.
34:06
Need to understand who you are as a writer, your physiology,
34:11
what are your goals to adjust that, to use the technology and not the other way around.
34:19
Yeah. Yeah.
34:23
What's one bike fit myth that drives you crazy? One, one, six,
34:29
five cranks are the best.
34:31
At the moment, it's just, yeah, we've gone full circle. At the moment,
34:36
that, to be honest with you, is probably one of our biggest,
34:40
yeah, I would say, kvites at the moment is that everyone thinks a shorter crank is better.
34:45
And often it is, don't get me wrong, but there's often many cases where it's
34:49
not, but everyone thinks it is.
34:51
So, you know, that is one of them. And the other one that we see a lot is,
34:57
you know, someone will buy the bike from the shop or, you know,
35:00
buy a secondhand bike and that stem is slammed.
35:05
And that is really a really big problem.
35:09
Especially with how bikes are nowadays, is that, you know, not every single one needs to be slammed.
35:15
And the problem there comes in is, you know, they have problems and they come
35:19
in and we try to do our best to make them optimal.
35:23
But there's a point where you say, okay, well, we need to come up a centimeter
35:26
or even two centimeters or even five millimeters.
35:29
And because they bought the bike brand new and just slammed it in the shop or
35:34
bought a bike secondhand that slammed, And you are completely limited in terms of what you can do.
35:40
You know, and we've had kind of people really unhappy, you know,
35:43
saying, oh, you know, you've done a bad job.
35:45
And you're like, well, we can't do anything here. You know, it's like you need to.
35:50
You've done your best with what you're given. Yeah, correct.
35:53
And, you know, what we have done in, you know, previously is.
35:58
You know, we've just tried to move it up as much as we can, which is just for
36:03
when they're in that static environment in the lab.
36:05
And they're like oh yeah it's much better and you say okay but
36:08
then you need to get a new fork you know there's only
36:11
so much we can do here and that i i which
36:14
i do i feel very sorry for people because sometimes a
36:17
bike shop just does that you know we've had some cases where
36:20
they've just slammed it and they you know that's how
36:23
it must be and i i do feel really sorry for some people
36:26
when they just got the bike like that any surprising thing
36:31
a rider has done mid-fit yeah we've
36:36
had some funny things we've had so obviously
36:40
our stuff is you know when you're in the facility and you're
36:43
doing the fitment it's the door's closed and it's super private and
36:46
with our 3d kinematics it's
36:49
obviously cameras and sensors so you the
36:53
the camera essentially picks up like a luminescent point
36:56
part and on a certain part of the body and
36:59
obviously if there's other reflections being picked up like say on
37:02
the kit or something we have to cover it and we
37:06
had this lady come and she didn't have a cycling top but she had like a t-shirt
37:10
and it was it had quite a lot of fluorescence on it so it kind of caused chaos
37:17
without without cameras and we had said to oh you know we're having a bit of
37:21
a problem here and try to kind of find a solution and she had said to us.
37:26
Oh, don't worry. And she ripped her shirt off.
37:29
But she had nothing underneath it. And we were kind of like,
37:34
there was two of us in the lab at the moment and quickly turned around 180 and
37:40
we had said like, hey, she's putting your shirt back on.
37:43
We'll find you something, a cycling shirt in the lab that we can give you. And.
37:49
She was hell bent. She was like, no, I'm good to go. And I was like, please.
37:55
And then also just some, like if an athlete has a saddle sore and we're like,
38:02
how bad is it at the moment?
38:03
And we've had people just rip off pants. Yeah, totally stripping.
38:08
So yeah, and then we've had some other weird things.
38:10
But I think definitely that lady was definitely our weirdest moment going forward.
38:19
Wow yeah i wouldn't be ready for that either.
38:26
It's funny yeah and then and then we asked her to go ride a few days which she
38:31
did and then she came back and we actually had another female in the lab at
38:35
the time you know we had said hey she's coming back would you mind just being
38:38
here for when she comes back but yeah it was yeah it caught us both very much off guard.
38:49
If you could give one piece of advice, coaching advice,
38:55
What would it be? Injuries from bad bike foot.
38:59
There's quite a few. Obviously, one of the most common, I would say,
39:04
injuries or discomforts that you have is saddle sores, especially if you're
39:07
spending time on the bike.
39:09
That is a very common injury or discomfort that we do find.
39:14
And then it ranges everything from lower back pain,
39:20
shoulder pain, middle of your back pain, knee pain in front and at the rear
39:28
of the knee, patellofemoral pain, etc.
39:31
So it ranges depending on kind of how that position that is on the bike affects the athlete.
39:39
But there are definitely knock-on effects from injury prevention that you want
39:45
to do by having a bad bike fit or fit that that's not optimal.
39:50
That could be some advice. And I'm hearing this more often now.
39:55
Yeah. And last but not least, what are you riding these days?
39:59
What is your favorite bike?
40:01
Ride my favorite bike at the moment is i
40:04
so matthew sauter and myself from
40:07
saffron frames we go back like a hundred
40:10
years and he built me a gravel bike
40:13
a full custom gravel bike and i must say it is every time i ride it it really
40:18
is the best bike i've ever ridden i i really say that like also because i'm
40:23
old so i need a more chilled out bike but um yeah at the moment i'm riding that
40:27
and then And I also have like a specialized SL8,
40:31
which I really do like, but I do feel really good when I ride the gravel bike.
40:37
I think mainly because it is a bit more relaxed and chilled out and everything that I do on it.
40:43
So from that side, I'd probably say at the moment it's that,
40:46
but I will say when I do ride my SL8, it is a really good bike to ride.
40:53
So you kind of get two of the best, but I'd say probably not at the moment,
40:56
my gravel like my saffron. Yeah.
41:01
Nice. All right. Well, John, thank you so much for giving your time to chat with me.
41:08
I will share with everyone the website for Science to Sport.
41:15
And if there's anything else you want me to include, just let me know.
41:19
And yeah, super thrilled that, you know, you made the time to chat with me.
41:24
Thank you. It's a pleasure. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.
41:28
And that's all for today's episode. I want to thank the listeners for tuning in.
41:33
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41:37
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41:44
Music.