Time to have some off-season fun. We aren’t allowed to share fit info from the pro athletes we work with too often, but the new Zwift commercial with Matthieu van der Poel provides a unique look at how arguably the most dominant cyclist in the world right now fits on his bike. I took some captures from the video and used the excellent online tools from motionysys.com to measure joint angles.
We must make a few assumptions here. First, we must assume this Canyon bike (which is unreleased) is set to his exact fit coordinates. Next, we further assume there was enough resistance on the trainer so he was pedaling under a decent load. If the power numbers you can see projected on the wall at times during the commercial are, in fact, his, we can see he had at least some load on the trainer. Let’s just go with it and if it’s wrong, it’s wrong.
Knee Extension:
Wow, this is not an ST approved knee angle! This is the only number I would consider odd from his entire fit as he extends quite a bit here. I don’t know his fitter, but I can take an educated guess on who it is. Not wrong, mind you. I mean, good luck beating this guy in virtually any cycling discipline, so clearly this saddle height (approx. 80cm-80.5cm) is working, though that’s pretty high for a guy who’s 6’ (184cm) tall. You can also see he points his toes quite a bit at the bottom of the pedal stroke, though in another capture you’ll see he points his toes quite a bit at the top of his pedal stroke as well. Interesting. Perhaps a lack of ankle flexibility? I believe I know why his saddle height is here, but I’ll wait a while before revealing my thoughts.
Fore/Aft position
It appears to me MvdP is “in the middle†here with the center of his knee joint pretty much directly over the 5th metatarsal head of his foot. This is inline with where most World Tour riders have gone in recent years; about 1-2cm forward of where they had been traditionally, which was at least that much further forward from their predecessors long ago (70’s & 80’s – not that long ago for me). His Selle Italia Flite saddle sits approx. 85mm behind the bottom bracket (effective seat angle of approx. 74 degrees).
Back Angle
Very standard stuff here. We’re usually shooting for right around 43 degrees of back angle on the hoods for anyone racing, including age groupers. Notice his arms are very relaxed and his shoulders are not pulled forward reaching to his bars. Nice.
Reach
Again, backing up his relaxed arms, very standard at just over 81 degrees. Nothing to see here.
Hip and Knee Angles
MvdP is wide open. He’s a fairly tall guy, and I believe his cranks are 172.5 so he’s not going to close off much. Again, note the angle of the foot.
So, this position is about as vanilla as it gets. Other than the saddle height (perhaps), you could replicate this position for yourself and be pretty dialed in. In every way, except knee extension, it’s right in the range I put most WT riders. If not position, what do they do differently than you and me then? They push down on the pedals really, really hard.
