Welcome to the latest episode of Zone2Speak! Join me as I explore the world of elite cycling with John Wakefield, the Managing Director of Science to Sport and Director of Development at Bora-Hansgrohe. John shares his experiences with top athletes and discusses what it takes to develop young riders into champions, including his time working with cycling star Tadej Pogačar during his back-to-back Tour de France victories and driving performance at the highest levels.
Dive into the intricacies of coaching, the impact of technology on bike fitting, and the evolving nature of professional cycling. Whether you’re a cycling enthusiast or an amateur athlete, this episode offers valuable insights into the training and mindset required to succeed in this competitive sport. Tune in for an engaging and informative conversation!
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evolutionizing global healthcare. Together, they delve into the world of regenerative medicine and its transformative impact on cycling, athletic performance, and recovery. Dr. Murrell shares his insights on innovative treatments such as PRP and stem cell therapy, providing listeners with valuable information on maintaining joint and muscle health.
Listeners will also discover practical advice on injury prevention, from managing hydration and electrolytes to the importance of warm-ups and flexibility for cyclists. Nutritional strategies are discussed, with a focus on plant-based diets and their adequacy in fueling athletic performance without sacrifice.
Find inspiration in the vision of a future where longevity, creativity, and abundance flourish, and learn how to integrate these concepts into your athletic journey. Tune in to explore the cutting-edge of sports science and uncover ways to accelerate healing, optimize health, and enhance your cycling experience.
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[Music] hi everyone welcome to the Zone speak podcast I’m your host [Music] Juliana hi everyone at Z to speak I know how important it is to stay healthy strong and ready for every ride workout and Adventure that’s why I have got exclusive discounts on some of my favorite products designed is specifically for athletes like you psych Plus their smart pump is a GameChanger compact efficient reliable and perfect for keeping your tires Road and gravel ready plus they have radar tail lights smart trainers smart fans and more get 10% off the smart pump and 5% off everything else 35% off Fray skin care skin care made for athletes designed for skin that sweats they’re all natural vegan and crueltyfree products keep your skin protected Ed and fresh I have been using fresh for years and I love it 10% off Cold age premium vitamins and supplements to F your body speed up recovery and help you right longer I personally take the women’s fermented vitamin and creatine both powder and capsules 10% clearly not coffee the ultimate coffee alternative made from functional ingredients to fill your focus and energy without the caffine crash try it out 15% off only supplements whether you are training recovering or pushing for Peak Performance their highquality supplements have you covered and there’s something special from me your host as a certified Integrated Health Nutrition expert and holistic life coach I am thrilled to offer all my listeners 25% off personalized nutrition and life coaching with gy Wellness if you want to optimize your health or simply feel your best head to be more gy.com and use the code don’t speak for all the discount check the episode description for the links and use Zone to speak code at checkout and let these amazing product support your health and performance now let’s get into the episode welcome back to Zone to speak on this episode I sit down with John Wakefield managing director of science to Sport and director of development at Bora hore John has spent years at the Forefront of high performance cycling working with some of the best athletes in the world from his expertise in bike feeding training and sports science to developing young Talent he knows what it takes to turn writers into Champions John has also been part of some of the biggest moments in procycle including his time at UAE team Emirates where he worked closely with no other than T pachar helping him on his way to backto back to the front victories I will dive into what it takes to win the biggest race in the world twice the mindset of a champion and the evolution of the sport from the inside so let’s get into it welcome to speak John thank you for having me yeah it’s a it’s a pleasure thank you thank you for feeding us into your busy schedule uh so so tell me how was working with tad pachar behind the scenes is he um what makes him so special compared to other writers um obviously from a physiological point he he obviously has some special attributes um but if you just take it as a I think as a person um yes obviously very professional in in what he does hisli to his job if you want to call it that um but he’s also a really good human being you know so from that side I think that carries over his fun Factor his um you know how he treats people how he looks at people and and you know in that environment I think you know that helps him have a really good support system around him and and have people want to support him um and also at the same time it helps you as as whatever you’re doing whether you you help him from the Sonia side as a massuse or whether you are managing him it it definitely creates an environment where you yourself have to bring out the best in yourself you know to to be able to apply whatever big or small um factor that that you need to bring to that environment but he’s he’s a really easygoing guy um definitely what you see is is is what you get with him yeah I mean he’s so charismatic you can’t help but love the guy you know because they we have had so many champions that have a f Bas obviously but that they’re the haters but there’s you no one can say anything about t i mean he’s just so lovable right I think you know if you had to find something to you know hate is a strong word but dislike about him is that you know he wins a lot I thinka be your worst thing yeah stop winning you know you know give somebody else a chance you know so I think if you really had to go I find one negative I suppose that that’s what it would be and I think he were with the UAE uh Emirates team um when he was young Talent when when did the team realized he was capable of winning the two um yeah so you knew he was capable of winning and and this is just my personal experience was when 21 Al G in 2019 um I remember it was the final climb and Al phip had gone up the road and it caused Panic obviously because it was alip you know and what also comes down to his nature he was very calm and he just rode his own pace and he landed up winning you know he didn’t lose enough time he didn’t win the stage but he he definitely clawed back the time that he lost and he won the stage and then you knew then he went to Tour of California um and then he went to the WTA and he won two stages and he finished third in his first Grand Tour um then you know that was sort of your your end result of knowing okay there’s definitely something very special here um he went to the tour that next year it wasn’t to win um in 2020 you know we had a different goal it was top five possibly a Podium um but by the second rest day or the your final rest day was was when we kind of you know it was a little bit evident as hey we we could possibly win this um and a lot goes into that but you know that that that’s when a little bit that switch kind of got turned on and it was say we can maybe have a really good go at this and how intense was when he started to win how intense was the pressure leading up to winning toward the fronts um yeah so on that 2020 to it wasn’t a a huge pressure value to to win it was more to go out and and do the best you can but as I said from that second rest day was okay we can give this a go but there wasn’t pressure to win it um you know the pressure I would say is probably came naturally upon himself um but there wasn’t really pressure from the team to okay well it’s you know going into the final week you you have to win this um but obviously that final day of the Titi which is you know almost historical on on how that happened um it was obviously a lot of a lot of nerves and pressure going on on that day so and how it is um managing such a young Talent not just today but in general because you work with a lot of um top athletes um yeah the the youngsters if you want to call it now are you know what I I think is definitely lost is that you know you’re still sitting with a very young 18 19 20 year old personality but you want them to perform like a like an adult you know so that judging well not judging but that sort of balance between yes you you’re dealing with a kid and I say that respectfully but you want a top level seasoned athlete in terms of physiology and and performance so it’s it’s um in some cases it’s a very delicate and um busy Management schedule around a kid like that because they are fragile possibly mentally yes they have the physiological attributes but mentally they just not there you know they’ve never left home they’ve you know they’ve never experienced the world and then you’re asking them to go on the road for possibly you know 130 days of the year living out of hotels having high pressure volume um it’s definitely um a work in progress some of them fall naturally into it but then some of them you really need to kind of have a very slow development process on that yeah all that you said and also the other thing that I think about is also the media you know because they have to deal with the media and and answer questions and it can’t be easy no and there’s also obviously expectations you know especially now with everything is younger and younger you know it’s like okay this guy’s come in it’s whatever Michael Smith and he’s coming and he’s expected to win and if he possibly doesn’t win or do as well as what the general public expected him to do then there’s a lot of scrutiny on why and how and when you start scrutinizing young kids or young minds that can potentially go the other way and you never see them again yeah yeah so you are uh director of development at Bens Gore now what what is their role like um yeah in a nutshell it is um it’s actually a really good role I’m I’m enjoying it um there’s many different aspects to it so there’s obviously the performance side but there’s also the human side and then there’s the the business side of of creating an actual development program so it’s kind of quite a few hats um also learned that I need to now deal with with the staff many staff and personalities um but in saying that uh the the outcome essentially is to identify young Talent um so that 15 16 17 18 year old category and um develop them into you know whether it’s a Classics winner whether it’s a by 2020 uh sorry 2030 a to of France Champion Etc um and that is sort of the goal and process of what that project is wow that’s really cool and are there any a specific qualities or mindsets that you are looking for to separate good writers from future stars um yeah our our scouting program I would say is pretty rigorous and I you know not just saying it because it ours but I do believe that we’re really on the Forefront of what we do with regards to that that and protocol so it’s looking at everything from the mental stability the mental focus the mental age of an athlete um to obviously physiological you know in terms of do we believe that this athlete can develop are they at a very good are they to higher level now um is there room for that development um and obviously everything from mental injury processes Etc so it’s um yeah it’s it’s quite a robust um scarting application that we do do with with athletes so it’s not just looking at them going oh this Rider is getting really good results and he has really good power it’s yes it’s an important factor but it’s not everything got it yeah I think the only little window that most of us see on scouting Talent is the zwift academy on YouTube sure correct um so that definitely is one uh one one area that that you do try identify Riders on um but it goes obviously all the way to speaking to agents we have Scouts that go to races Etc so it’s um yeah it’s it’s not just one specific thing okay okay so you guys go like you saying you Havey Scouts you go like to crit races and other world races around the globe around the world yeah correct okay cool any success stories that you have witnessed in this talent development that you could share um I would probably say Florian lipit is one of them um he also came a little bit from outside the normal cycling mold he came from uh like sko and ski touring and stuff and uh started riding a bicycle a little bit late as well and um you know the team had identified him kind of got got him got him onto the team and signed him after bit of a a process and um yeah really successful he’s you know won some week long stage races he did his first grand tour now in August and he finished seventh overall on GC so for him if I say you know from from one of the ones that stand out I feel that that is definitely one of them especially from an unconventional cycling approach and do you think he’s one one of the other ones besides R glitch that you see as a GC in big tours uh yeah definitely and also the kind of longer 5 Seven 8 Day Day stage races like hypothetically a dph a you know Terina adriatico Etc and uh I don’t I sorry I don’t know when you join uh Baran Gore but um have you seen any change since Red Bull joined the team uh yeah I joined the team um for the 2023 season uh so okay 23 24 um and the so yes there’s definitely changes that had come um you know we there was nothing the the the team was really good before you know but you have sort of limitations on what we had access to and what we could do um and with Red Bull you know we’ve now broadened that scope and we’ve been able to get access or you know a knowledgeable base um that we didn’t really potentially were able to to have before so you know when you combine both of those parties together um it’s really been fantastic so far wonderful wonderful so let’s talk a little bit about coaching um what have worked with some of the world top writers that um you have worked with some of the top uh Cycles in the world what what Drew you into coaching um I don’t actually know I um yeah it was more it wasn’t really coaching itself is I had quite a bad Motocross accident um and I had to do quite extensive uh Rehabilitation from it and while I was doing the rehabilitation I was like yeah I as weird as it sounded but I really although I didn’t get on with the gentleman that was doing my Rehabilitation uh we definitely clashed on the personality I really was inspired by what he knew and what he did with me to get me back um and I was just like this is what I want to do um but I didn’t really know what but it was more that environment and because of the the injury that I was that I had I couldn’t race Motocross anymore and a friend of mine said oh will you just kind of help coach me or train me essentially is what it was um because I was I enjoyed the training aspect of of sport um a little bit more than the actual racing side of it and um from that um yeah it just it grew very big on the Motocross side I raced a mountain bike and I raced a road bike um and then I met another gentleman and uh who’s my business partner and he said to me oh you know what about doing cycling coaching and I was like okay let’s see what it’s about and then um here I am today so yeah that’s uh 20 years later that that’s where I am today awesome and look look what what have you done I mean yeah how many victories how many you know talent you have developed it’s incredible yeah so yeah that that’s sort of how it happened it happened from a broken back and a broken leg and you’re today wow wow and what do you think about amateurs copying what Pros are doing one example I have is when it came out that pogar was writing a 165 crank everybody went out there wanting a 165 grank yeah they did especially from our business in Jona it became H it you know like so so there it’s like yes you you you take knowledge you understand you know it’s it’s fantastic you know people want to better themselves so I’m I’m all in supportive for that but and here’s the but where it comes from is that just because tday rides a 165 crank or he rides the saddle it doesn’t mean that works for everyone and that’s what people don’t don’t understand they see T had X Y and Z or you know Primo had X Y and Z Improvement because he did this it’ll automatically apply to myself where it doesn’t you know and what they don’t understand is typically should you know Prim much go to a or any Rider go of that level go to a shorter crank there’s reasoning behind it and there’s testing that had been done they didn’t just go to their bike shop and tell the guy to put a 165 crank you know so yeah from that side it’s uh you know if I just go on the which is really a big thing that we have at the moment especially in terms of from our biomechanical side at the company is that everybody just wants shorter cranks now and you kind of say to them sure we’ll do this but you do understand that it’s not always going to come out in a positive outcome um and that’s what people don’t understand yeah that makes sense and I was getting a new bike uh customade around that time and I am kind of little and then I have a 165 crank and I couldn’t find anything because it was all sold out correct if that’s my size people leave the 165 crank away you know if I uh you know it would have been great to get some pre-warning from that and I would have bought a whole bunch of 165 cranks made made Millions yep yep yeah and so that uh brings me to bike fitting you have an awesome uh spot here in Jona science to sport uh you did my bike fit and I’m so so so comfortable it was the first time actually that um I did a bike feeding with the setle pressure yes and I think yeah yeah I really loved it so um and most people think you know having a bike fit is not worth it you know I mean amateurs or people getting to the sports think oh you know it’s so much money just to adjust my settle height but there’s so much more that goes into it can you talk a little bit um sure on the process yeah so so what you said is um is actually true is that people think I won’t get a bike fit I won’t spend whatever the amount is on a good bike fit but I’ll go and spend like €7,000 on carbon fiber Wheels thinking I’ll go better where you’re saying okay but if you’re uncomfortable or you have problems worst case scenario you have some kind of medical problems because of a bad bike but your carbon wheels aren’t really going to go that far so um you know from that side what we do and I I can’t speak for many other bike Fitters around but you know what we do is kind of a a a full system so we take you know a physiological measurements from you so you know leg well first off we take your medical history so have you come from injuries what are they where are you if there have been injuries processes are you doing rehabilit Etc or if it’s everything is fine and then we go through you know as I said some physiological measurements like leg length um upper full leg length upper lower leg length we do flexibility we do um arm length um and we take a lot of your history into account and then from that obviously is where we then start your your bike foot process going forward from that and yes you know in today’s Times you know aerodynamics is a very strong word um but what we obviously try to get you into is yes you want to have that aerodynamic point but also aerodynamics whether it’s a road bike or a tit bike is only as good as or as as good as you can hold that position for as long as you can you know so if you can’t really hold it for very long there is no aerodynamics you know that position goes away so what we try to do is obviously have comfort your power delivery is is good um and your economy on the bike is good um and that’s what we look for and obviously if you do have medical issues you know it may be an ongoing process where while you get better or you are improving from the injury side we adjust the bike as we go to that final position of what we want yeah no I totally agree I always say Comfort is speed yeah you you you just can’t be super aggressive and like you said and then you cannot hold the position you’re uncomfortable you’re in pain maybe you even get an injury is it possible yeah correct definitely you know so yeah going back to that it’s you know you can have hypothetically if it’s a TT bike or CDA or say .16 but if you can’t hold it you end up having 0.19 anyway so you land up going slower so rather be powerful at 0.18 as an example and and be able to hold that position for the full duration of your of your TT effort yeah what are some of the top mistake cyclists make with their bike fit um yeah going too aggressive um is definitely one of them um and then the other side is when they’re trying to find a position is what we find is that say they feel oh I’m uncomfortable they won’t do a small change of one thing at any given time so they’ll lower the saddle as an example they’ll change the the drop or the reach and they’ll put a different stem on and they doing two three four things at one time to try find that comfortable position but the problem comes then is is that which one was the right one and which one was the wrong one you know so you kind of find out that they get really and it’s it’s normal they just get very Lost in Translation so you don’t know where the problem is coming from you know so what we say is you know if you’re feeling a bit funny on the sadle just make a change on the saddle don’t do the front end don’t do the back you know don’t don’t all these changes in one go and when you do do changes do very small changes at a time um you know don’t go from unless it’s you know a super super high settle but don’t go from you know change like one cm changes at a time um you know do small increments test it see how it feels and then and then make make if need be make another change from there yeah that’s good advice it makes sense change one thing at a time and slowly because then if you change everything you don’t know what improved or what got worse yeah correct be hard to tell yeah which is often the case and and you know when you speak to someone you say okay what did you do and they have like this phone book of uh of changes they made out on the road and you’re like okay now we need to start from day one again yeah yeah yeah you talked a little bit about uh aerodynamics what role does it play in bike feeding on Pro versus amateur is that a difference uh or it depends on the physiology of the rider it really kind of what you want out of the bike you know so if I take a pro who is looking you know for those small gains and their job revolves around this yes you you try get that ex whatever Sweet Spot between what is aerodynamic and what is is you know sustainable you know if it’s just a recreational cyclist but maybe they do races and they competitive within that amateur environment that outcome is the same of what you’re trying to do maybe at a lesser extent just because of how their body is and what they’re doing from a racing perspective and their age comes into account uh but then also all the way back to you know if I take an amateur cyclist like myself I just want to be comfy on the bike and be able to go ride you know so from that side it’s very different to like a racing amateur or a Racing Pro or just um you know someone that just likes to go ride they buy you know so you your your fit is based around exactly that on on what their outcome is and what they would like and what is capable in terms of their body yeah yeah I have um I like to do endurance so on my gravel bikes for example I have my handlebar much higher than my road bike yeah for sure which is a little bit more aggressive because I’m shorter time when I go you know up El angel or something it’s just quicker rides yeah yeah correct and um how does a proper fit improve power output endurance and comfort but especially on power yeah so on power obviously if you have a an optimal position on your bike your power delivery is is is better um your application to power and obviously your economy is better on the bike so your time to exhaustion or your fatigue is is less um and that’s essentially you know coming down to yeah coming coming down to what is definitely a more um correct position vers something as we’ve almost just said that is not sustainable so you know at the end of the day if you can produce power for longer with less fatig that is that is your optimal position or a optimal position and do different body types or flexibility levels require different fits uh yeah definitely um you know the more flexibility you have you can go more aggressive on a bike so because you have that range of motion um also saddle height comes into play if you have a really tight set of hamstrings you’re also very limited in terms of what you can do with saddle height because if you have a high saddle you know over time that hamstring wants to shorten and the easiest way to shorten the hamstring if it’s not by the range is by posteriority rotating your pelvis you know when you posterior rotate your pelvis you shut off or limit hamstring and glute recruitment which is a you know one of your Direct effects on Powers so they don’t don’t run a super high saddle if you have tide hamstrings um and then also you you also do have kind of if you’re stretching the hamstring all the time you do have some hamstring pain Etc got it yeah and I guess those warmups and preite and Mobility stretching po post ride make also a huge difference for injury prevention yeah definitely post ride and and you want to have flexibility on the bike you know yeah it it is really important have you seen any commonality in injuries caused by poor bike fits or lack thereof yeah there’s quite like quite a few obviously you know one of the most common I would say injuries or discomforts that you have is Saddle Source um especially if you’re spending time on the bike that is a a very common um injury or discomfort that that we do find and then it you know it ranges everything from you know lower back pain uh shoulder pain middle of your back pain um knee pain uh in front and and knee uh in front and and at the rear of the knee uh you know femal Patell femal pain Etc so it ranges depending on kind of how that position that is on the bike affects the athlete um but yeah there there are definitely um knock on effects from from injury prevention that you want to do by by by having a bad bike fit or fit that that’s not optimal yeah I had a problem before it wasn’t a bad bike fit it was just me probably when I traveled put the saddle maybe too high when putting the bike uh together again and I was doing a Ultra in Rwanda and had so much knee pain but when you’re in an ultra the ultra brain doesn’t function really well and I don’t know why I didn’t think about the settle position but I was doing as a pair with my friend um who is a YouTuber Juliet uh Elliot and then looking at the videos I was just like oh my gosh my saddle height it’s yeah it was like um tiptoeing so that that did it yeah correct um and that is a common um problem people have is that you know if you are traveling with your bike Etc and they put it together mainly on the satellite side um it is it’s common you know whether it’s too low or maybe drops down in travel or you know whether you take your seat post out and you put it back so there’s an example it’s um it’s really important to kind of Mark that however you feel you mark it you know whether you measure it with a tape measure on whatever angles and and and ranges you feel is good um it is really important to have especially if you do travel often with your bike yeah yeah I mean I’m I’m kind of lucky because my bike is an extra small so now when I travel I try not to take the sadle out if possible I’m like don’t touch my setad I’m so paranoid it’s uh it’s something to be paranoid about that so it’s good yeah yeah are there any difference between road gravel and M bike fits um the way gravel racing um from a racing aspect the way gravel has evolved now into how it is from from an aggressive racing style um there’s not a lot of difference between a road bike and a gravel bike what is different is that your front end needs to be slightly less aggressive um a from a handling aspect um you don’t want it super Twitchy narrow um and also then because you do spend slightly longer you know on the gravel side especially for the you know compared to yes a world to race Etc so you want it slightly more relaxed but other than that it’s it’s a very similar fit the only difference that we have seen which um it’s an odd one to me is and it’s not in a big volume of people but you know guys that are now wanting you know 36 narrow bars on a gravel bike because they think it’s more Arrow or they’re running like you know Arrow um helmets and socks and stuff like that on a gravel race to me is is super strange um because you’re not really going to get the benefit of it and if you’re running you know 36 narrow bars your handling goes to hell you know so from that side um that much I’m I don’t really understand on the very few that that want to kind of translate that over from road to gravel um um but the fitment itself is um you know it’s it’s a very similar fitment less 20% 10% um and then obviously on a mountain bike it is very different just purely because of you know how mountain bike frames are positioning Etc on the bike makes sense yeah on the grab I don’t understand either especially on the handling if I if the bar is more narrow it’s more aggressive right when you and you are dealing with different terrain yeah it’s more touchy the last thing I want to do is do some of those downhills on the 36 ball yeah and how how has uh technology change the way bike fits are done today yeah quite yeah quite a lot um you know and and something I always say is you know all the with all this technology you can have the best technology in the world but the fit always comes down to the person using that technology you know so you can take any technology and if a you know if it’s not understood it’s still going to be a a not really an optimal fitment so you know taking that if we work it backwards especially from a kinematics Point um you know you get really good values and additional stuff that you see with a kinematic cameras that you can’t see obviously from a static value but you want those two to always on an optimal foot is to correlate for what you see kinematically is what you see statically um and then also you know if we add in as you had mentioned you know saddle pressure mapping it’s really important you know for us you know that is your last fine-tuning that bike fitment to make sure you know you can say fine static and kinematics are really good and on paper it’s great and the the subject getting the foot says oh I feel really good and then you do mapping and you realize why I need to make you know one or two little small tweaks here to make it really optimal um you know and that and that to me is you know when you combine all of it and you understand that technology correctly um you know your fitments are really a lot more uh detailed than what they were you know when you used to just you you use a plum line um and also bikes in fairness have changed a lot over the years that you know CBE angle isn’t the same across the board anymore you know Different Bikes different sebe angles Etc so um you know it’s it’s really become it’s not just a slam The Handlebar raise the saddle in a way you go anymore um you know racing is also changed so as that happens you you have to adapt to fitment accordingly 100% yeah I’m a big fan of the pressure mapping um I loved the experience I had in your um Studio definitely made a huge change for me uh but you absolutely right the knowledge the person behind the technology doing the fit makes total difference need to understand who you are as a writer your physiology um what are your goals to adjust that to to use the technology and not the other way around yeah yeah yeah that’s yeah what’s one bike fit myth that drives you crazy one65 cranks are the best yeah at the moment it’s yeah we’ve gone full circle at the moment that to be honest with you is probably um one of our biggest uh yeah I would say kit at the moment is that everyone thinks a shorter crank is better um and and often it it is don’t get me wrong but there’s often many cases where it’s not but everyone thinks it is so you know that is one of them and the other one that we see a lot is um you know someone will buy the bike from the shop or you know buy a secondhand bike um and that stem is slammed and that is is really a a really big problem um especially with how bikes are nowadays is that you know not every single one needs to be slammed and the problem there comes in is you know they have problems and they come in and we try to do our best to to make them optimal but there is a point where you say okay well we need to come up a centimet or even 2 cm or even 5 mm M and because they bought the bike brand new and just slammed it in the shop or bought a bike secondhand that slammed you are completely Limited in terms of what you can do um you know and we’ve had kind of people really unhappy you know saying ah you know you’ve done a bad job and you’re like well we can’t do anything here you know it’s like you need to you’ve done your best with what you’re given yeah correct and you know what what we have done in you know previously is you know we’ve just tried to move it up as much as we can which is just for when when they’re in that static environment in the lab and they’re like oh yeah it’s much better and you say okay but then you need to get a new Fork you know there’s only so much we can do here um and that I I I which I do I feel very sorry for people because sometimes a bike shop just does that you know we’ve had some cases where they’ve just slammed it and they you know that heart must be and I I I do feel really sorry for some people when they has got the bike like that any surprising um thing a rider has done midfit yeah we’ve heard some funny things um we’ve had um so obviously our stuff is you know when you’re in the facility and you’re doing the fitment it’s the door’s closed and it’s super private and um with our 3D kinematics it’s obviously cameras and sensors so you the the camera essentially picks up up a like a luminescent uh Point pod and on a certain part of the body and obviously there’s other Reflections being picked up like say uh on the kit or something we have to cover it and we had this lady come and she didn’t have a cycling top but she had like a t-shirt and um it was it had quite a lot of fluorescence on it so it it Dam it kind of caused chaos with our with our cameras and we had said to R um you know we having bit of a problem here and try to kind of find a solution and she had said to us oh don’t worry and she she ripped her shirt off and yeah but she had nothing underneath it and um yeah we were kind of like there was two of us in in the in the lab at the moment and you know quickly turned around 180 and we said like hey you know you mind just putting your shirt back on you know we’ll we’ll find you something you know a cycling shirt in the lab that we can give you and um but she was help he was like no I’m I’m good to go and I was like you know like please um and then yeah and then also just some like if if an athlete has like a saddle saw and we like you know how bad is it at the moment and we’ve had people just you know rip off pants yeah totally stripping so um yeah and then we’ve yeah we’ve had some other weird things but I think definitely that lady was um was definitely our weirdest moment you know um you going forward wow yeah I wouldn’t be ready for that [Laughter] either that’s funny yeah and then and then we asked her to go ride a few days um which she did and then she came back and we actually had another female in the lab at the time um you know we said hey she’s coming back would you mind just being here for when she comes back but yeah it was uh yeah it C it caught us both very much off guard for uh if you could give one piece of advice coaching advice what would you be what would it be if injuries from Bad Bite foots there’s quite like quite a few obviously you know one of the most common I would say injuries or discomforts that you have is Saddle sawce um especially if you’re spending time on the bike that is a a very common um injury or discomfort that that we do find and then it you know it ranges everything from you know lower back pain uh shoulder pain middle of your back pain um knee pain uh in front and and knee uh in front and and at the rear of the knee uh you know femoral Patell femoral pain Etc so it ranges depending on kind of how that position that is on the bike affects the athlete um but yeah there there are definitely um knock on effects from from injury prevention that you want to do by by by having a bad bike fit or fit that that’s not optimal good piece of advice and I’m hearing this more often now yeah and last but not least what are you riding these days what is your favorite bike to ride um my favorite bike at the moment is I so Matthew sa and myself from saffron frames we go back like 100 years um and he built me a a gravel bike a full custom gravel bike and I must say it is every time I ride it it’s it really is the best bike I’ve I’ve ever ridden um I I really say that like Al because I’m old so I need a more chilled out bike but um yeah at the moment I’m riding that and then I I also have like a A specialized sl8 which I really do like um but I I do feel um really good when I ride the the gravel bike I think mainly because it is a bit more relaxed and chilled out and and everything that that that I do on it um so from that side I’d probably say at the moment it’s that but I will say when I do ride my my sl8 it’s it it is a really good bike to ride you know so you kind of get two of the best but I’d say probably not at the moment my grabble bike my my saffron yeah oh nice all right well John thank you so much for giving your time to chat with me I will share with everyone um the website for science to Sport and if there’s anything else you want me to include just let me know and uh yeah super thrilled that you know you made the time to chat with me thank you it’s a pleasure thanks for having me on I appreciate it and that’s all for today’s episode I want to thank the listeners for tuning in your support means everything if you enjoyed this episode please consider following leaving a review and sharing it with your friends [Music]
1 Comment
Good to "see" John again. He is from my cycling neighboorhood in Cape Town! Great podcasts, and I enjoy watching you and Julliette on your adventures.