Fitting Specialized BG Shoes

I recently visited Jake Mestre, a friend and racer on the University of Nevada Reno Cycling Team for a bike fit. Jake just got a new replacement Cervelo and wanted to have his position dialed in for max power; I told him that our fits are dialed in for max comfort which leads to max power. Jake rides Specialized BG shoes and when I saw him riding I noticed that his knees where way in close to the top tube. The handy FFMD gave the the indication that Jake could benefit from having 1 or 2 wedges placed under his shoes. When he took off his shoes what did I find? A 1.5mm valgus wedge in there, but wait the FFMD indicated he was a varus!!! Was the Specialized valgus wedge placed in there to offset the 1.5mm of varus that the shoes have? Was the previous fitter's idea to bring back the foot to a 0 degree tilt without even measuring the actual fore foot tilt?

Once the wedges were placed under his soles, he got back on the bike and voila`, the knee was tracking pretty much perfectly. Unfortunately due to Jake's size 47 shoe, going for a shorter Speedplay spindle length is not an option as the width of his shoes offer no clearance between the inside of the shoe and the crank arm. We were able to fine-tune the tracking by moving the cleat outwards to allow the foot to come further in and get even a better alignment.

Furthermore this adjustment changed his fore/aft position on the saddle - he moved backwards, which allowed us to move his saddle forward on the rails and made his reach even better. Before the bike fit Jake was contemplating moving to a 120 stem, but now he did not have to. With this slight move forward his arm/shoulder/back angle was a nice 90 degrees vs 92-94 before hand.

While placing 2 wedges is a drastic adjustment for someone that pedals in a completely different fashion, a short adaptation time will be key to make sure that his body gets used to the new foot/pedal position. Keep you eyes open if you are going to be competing against Jake in any of the collegiate races out West or during the 24 Ore di Feltre in Italy this summer.