Athletes

Lesley Patterson came to the Finalfit Studio to dial in her position on her tri, road, and mountain bikes today.  Lesley is one of the top triathletes in the world and mutiple Xterra Champion, and yet triathletes of all abilities could learn a few things from her fit session.  The changes we made to her position were nothing short of massive, but necessary for her to ride comfortably with power.

Lesley came into her fit session having struggled with her tri bike position all year; she experienced toe numbness and hot feet, but more importantly, had a nagging hip pain that was causing some serious performance issues.  Her previous position did not allow her to ride in the aero position comfortably for any length of time, certainly not for the 70.3 distance she now trains for.

Without going into too much boring detail about the entire session, let me just state that Lesley went through the exact same fit process as any Finalfit client.  Everyone is treated the same no matter who they are, because the process works for everyone no matter who they are!  Some of Lesley's results, however, are noteworthy because it shows that, while we all might have different abilities, we're still all human and certain things just work for all of us.  The position you see above is her post-fit position, and it's absolutely textbook: 39 degree knee angle extension, 45 degree closed hip angle, 76 degree armpit to elbow angle, and a 19 degree back angle.  Her hip angle, in particular, is about as closed as we allow for a triathlete, and she repeatedly desired that angle no matter how we changed the position of her saddle.  This is to be expected - not the exact angle, but an angle specific to her - turns out we all have certain hip angles that work for us individually, and though they pretty much all fall within a certain range, we'll always choose the same angle that works for us.  It's just the way our bodies want to work.  As stated above, to get to this position, some serious changes were made: her saddle was moved forward nearly 3cm, her reach was shortened 6cm total, and her arm rest drop was raised by nearly 7cm!  Huge.

Although this is, indeed, a "textbook" position, Lesley actually has room for improvement.  This because her cranks are actually too long for her.  At about 5ft tall, Leslie's bike is equipped with 165mm cranks, which is about as short as production cranks get; however, they're still too long for her as her knee angle flexion (top of the pedal stroke) measures to around 116 degrees.  That number should be closer to 110 degrees to allow for easier pedaling over the top of the stroke.  We tried 155mm cranks (adjustable cranks on the fit bike), and she instantly felt better and more powerful as this kept her leg from coming up too high at the top of her pedal stroke, effectively opening her hip angle.  With that more open hip angle, she could simply enjoy the comfort and power it brings, or she could lower the front end a bit more for aerodynamic efficiency.  The choice is left up to the athlete, and we now give every client the chance to feel what shorter cranks are like during their tri-specific fit session.  Not one client who has decided to make the change has regretted their decision.

We welcome Lesley Patterson to the Finalfit stable of athletes, and will follow her closely as she continues her successful multi-sport career!