Last Updated on December 19, 2012 by stevehoggbikefitting.com
The Tour Down Under starts today. Follow rider no.135 Tim Roe. Tim rode for LiveStrong U23 last year and rode well enough to attract a contract from Cadel’s team, BMC. This was despite having a left leg that he felt was not contributing as much as it should. In 2010 Tim visited several bike fitters in Europe and the U.S. before finding his way to us late in the year on the recommendation of HTC’s Hayden Roulston. Tim tells me that his left leg feels ‘normal’ now. Tim is motivated, pleasant to deal with and excels at climbing and TT’ing; a stage racer in the making. Probably why his entire 2011 program is stage races. He nearly broke the shop record on our trainer despite having been off the bike for the previous 6 weeks with a fractured clavicle from a Tour de l’Avenir pile up.
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Steve,
Awesome that you are contributing to everyone for weekend warriors to pro tour riders. Just out of curiosity what was the main thing effecting Time Roe’s left leg not having “power.” Was it to high of a saddle height, lack of foot support (wedges and/or arch support), or sitting asymmetrically on the saddle with caused to the leg not to reach the pedals equally?
G’day Bill,
It was a combination of all of those things combining to have
him dropping his right hip enough to force the left leg to slightly overextend and have it’s plane of movement constantly challenged. I hasten to add, none of the changes i made were large, but were enough for Tim to leave here sitting and pedalling more symmetrically.
The key is this; human compensate brilliantly for any shortcomings in function or bike position but all of our compensatory mechanisms force us to function less symmetrically. In a positional sense, a bike is symmetrical and it is this mismatch that causes problems.
Steve,
Awesome statement! It is so true. Also, I have raced again Cantwell..he’s a beast…I’m sure it’s all because of your doing 🙂
As you have seen, Jon Cantwell is one of the fastest things on two wheels. Things didn’t go his way with contracts etc. While I think I do a good job, Jon Cantwell would beat just about anybody in a road sprint whether I had fiddled with his position or not. He’s won plenty in the States over the last couple of years.
Regards,
Steve
STEVE HOGG
COMFORT+EFFICIENCY=PERFORMANCE
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