Knee pain is the common cold of cyclists, it is always around and if you haven’t had it yet, then it is only a matter of time.
I run the France-based bikefitting service Etude Posturale 06, and have vast experience in cycling all over the world and with thousands of clients.
Riding a bike since the age of 3 I have applied myself to most 2-wheeled disciplines including street, freestyle and dirt-track BMX, Mountain biking, Cyclocross, Road and Time Trial racing and Track cycling amongst others. Bike crashes and motorcycle injuries have left me with compensations and injuries that take daily care with Yoga, training and breathing-exercises.
The night upon arriving in Besanćon I noticed that my right knee was ‘tickling’ me when walking down the stairs to dinner. Letting me know it was there, a little hello. The last few hours in the rain I had had no feeling in my legs and from what I can tell when I clipped in to my pedals after a red-light, puncture or other I caught some wet-weather material from my overshoes that jammed my foot in an inward rotation thereby canting my hips to the right. Hello tendonitis.
Warm and cold treatments followed by strapping and fascial release got me through the mornings ride but a prolonged stop and cold (we love emergency blankets) was the last straw so I climbed off and took up navigating in one of the cars.
The Doubs region is extraordinarily beautiful, butted up close to Switzerland and named so after the Doubs river that winds it way through the gingerbread villages immortalised in the book ‘The Alps and Pyrenees’ by Victor Hugo, who was born in the region.
I spent the afternoon as a spectator with the lovely Angie helping navigate and fix tyres and mechanicals, but I was becoming frustrated with the maps, the communication and watching the riders becoming injured and losing their motivation due to endless stops, rerouting and supplemental hours in bad conditions.
We were small boats on a wavey sea.
In Geneva we reviewed the navigation and found that riders were riding with different versions of the GPS maps on their Garmins to the support cars that was leading to delays that cost time and energy. We were covering up to and over 200 kilometres a day with some riders having only ridden around the block the week before…
A late night on the computer with Steve and we had a series of maps that could be distributed to riders and staff to get us on track and in one direction again, together.