JAMES SHAW

I had a great day today, with one of my favourite people, James Shaw.

James came to see me after his crash in this years Tour De France, to check his postural alignment.

We then had to wait until Jonathan Vaughters gave me permission to adjust his position.

With Professional Cyclists, a bikefitter has to be especially mindful, of any positional change, because it can be hugely detrimental.

We have been working with James for 5 years now, but it's the first time we've actually fitted him.

In fact, it's the first time James has ever had a bikefit!

We had a great day, working on his position, correcting several issues with his feet and knee alignment.

James was not able to produce force comfortably, or effectively because his feet were misaligned within the shoe and his cleats were in the wrong place.

His saddle was too far forward, which meant that he couldn't get on the power early enough and it was causing a "hip hitch".

This then caused the foot to go through the top of the pedal stroke with the toes pointing downwards, rather than flat.

The fit then addressed all of these issues, which went brilliantly.

The end result, was more power, more efficiency and much less fatigue.

All of these metrics were proven during the fit, resulting in a very happy James!

A huge thank you to Jonathan Vaughters for allowing me to work with James.

A huge thank you to James for coming to see us and for allowing our little business to be a part of your incredible cycling journey.

FRED WRIGHT

We had another amazing day at Ben-efit Bikefit Studio.

Fred Wright came to see us!

Fred is the current British Road Race Champion and he rode the Tour De France this year!

He is also the 2nd World Tour Rider to see us this week, after James Shaw.

I contacted Fred after noticing he had a knee track issue when I was watching him race earlier in the year.

It was only subtle and when I phoned him, his response was "How did you know that?!"

We helped Fred with his knee track, by changing his cleat position, moulding him a set of Sidas Carbon insoles and slightly changing the position of his saddle.

Fred then felt substantially more stable and his knee tracking issue was resolved.

We then spent 2 hours teaching him some breathing techniques and working in pedaling efficiency.

The fit took 11 hours and the day flew by, because Fred is such great company.

It was also Scott's birthday and Fred kindly gave him a signed team jersey as a present.

All in all, it was a fantastic day.

A huge thank you to Fred for coming to see us.

OLLIE ROBINSON

HENRY URAND

JAMES SHAW

I met James Shaw at the Tour of Britain, and we struck up a friendship. At the time James was riding for Lotto Soudal. In December 2019, he came to see me because i told him could increase his performance, by just spending a day with me. We worked on breathing and pedalling techniques, to make James as efficient as he could possible be and by the end of the day there was a significant difference in his power output.

IAN WRIGHT

I've ridden 2 London to Paris events with Wrighty now. He's always great company and on one of these events, he had an issue with his riding position.

I changed his cleat alignment, saddle height and saddle set back, whilst he kept us entertained with his singing. He has been a long time supporter of our charity due to his friendship with Geoff Thomas and losing his best friend David Rocastle to Leukaemia in 2001.

GEOFF THOMAS

I met Geoff in 2013. He was the Patron for the charity I volunteer for.

He asked me if I would train him for The Tour De France route in 2014, in which he raised £1 million for various blood cancer charities.

I looked at every aspect of his cycling and had to adapt many training sessions to allow for the injuries he'd sustained as a world class footballer and as a survivor of leukaemia.

Geoff continues to raise huge sums of money for his chosen charities.

SUE SPIGHT

We see a lot of Para-cyclists and people that have have had injuries, or asymmetry that other bike fitters have been unable to solve.

A few weeks ago, we met this wonderful individual.

This is Sue and Sue has very little flexion or extention in her left knee.

As a result, Sue's knee won't bend enough to pedal a standard crank.

The guys at Highpath engineering have the solution and as with all the best ideas, it is very simple.

A swing arm crank was attached to Sue's existing crank, enabling her to pedal with the left leg.

With Sue's current range of movement, her foot was unable to be above the centre of the bottom bracket. This meant that without the swing arm, even with 100mm cranks, would have been too long.

When Sue arrived, there was quite a bit of asymmetry, which we managed to solve, by aligning the pedals, at the bottom of the pedal stroke.

There were some other things we had to allow for such as Sue's stance being wider on the left side, due to the extra width required for the swing arm.

At the end of the session, Sue had a significant decrease in Pelvic movement and was much more comfortable.

She reported back after her first ride that she could cycle further, with more comfort, so all in all a great day.

She is also fabulous company!!

Attached to this post is a video showing different parts of the day and how we analyse movement, before working out how we might be able solve any issues.

WAYNE BRIDGER

DEAN JORDAN