Article on cleat tweaking for Valverde

[UK_Gearmuncher]

Valverde searching for speed
Alejandro Valverde is conducting tests at the Pinarello factory in Italy to work on his efficiency and aerodynamics for the 2006 season. According to a Spanish media outlet, Marca, the 24-year-old Iles Baleares rider wants to improve his speed on flat ground in regards to the Tour de France 2006.

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By working with biomechanic Alessdandro Mariano and team-mate Vladimir Karpets, Valverde found that moving his cleats further back on his shoes would give him more of an angle during the dead zone in the pedal rotation, when the pedals are moving horizontally.

“Before, the rotary mouvement of his ankle was blocked, as there was no angle,” said Mariano, “Now, thanks to this small change, he has an angle of 30 degrees.”

Besides changing the positioning of his feet, Valverde’s position and handlebars on his time-trial bike were lowered to improve his efficiency.

The young climber is looking to improve for the Tour de France 2006 and its 115 kilometres of time trials. In this year’s edition of the Tour, Valverde began with a disastrous 88th position in the prologue, losing 2 minutes 24 seconds to the winner in only 19 kilometres. If he wants to finish the Tour in yellow next year, he will have to do some serious re-working of his time-trial technique.

NOTE: To improve efficiency, cyclist will test different positions for their cleats, which can be moved in all directions and then screwed solidly into place. By moving cleats from back to front, the calf muscles will be more solicited, while doing the opposite will increase pressure on the upper leg muscles. The most important to know in finding the right position is the fluidity of the movement when turning the pedals.

[devashish_paul]

I have to agree that the impact of cleat position is totally underestimated. In all of the discussions about bike positioning, position pictures, high RPM riding vs cranking, rarely anyone talks about how cleat position affects this. If your cleats are forward (towards toes), you can ride higher cadenace and recruit the hamstrings and calves better. Move them back toward the heel and you can really hammer with the quads. I have never really found the optimal position. Since the cleat is the interface for the power transfer from your body to bike it is likely the most important aspect of your fit from which everything else follows. Lemond wrote about this in the 80’s says that it was pointless to set up the rest of your bike until you had your cleat in the correct place. I’m still searching for that correct place. 2 years ago, I even drilled the holes in my sole further back so that I could really crank away.

Can any of the “science guys” on this forum shed some light on this topic. It would be really useful.

[wdbike.com]

I’d love to see some info on this too. I do know that cyclingnews.com has put a lot of info out there regarding this subject. I’ll see if I can dig it up.

[triguy42]

You post too much and need to train more. I was actually thinking about the same thing the other day, as I always end up using my right quad slightly more than my left quad. Based on the above info I bet if I take my calipers to the pedals I’ll find the right cleat very slightly further back. This could be the reason I tend to get left calf cramps and right quad cramps. Vellly intelesting!

[Tom_Fort]

I understand what he’s saying about the cleat fore and aft. Steve Hogg on CyclingNews has been harping for a while to have the cleats further back and to move the ball of your foot a little in front of the pedal spindle.

But what does the article mean re. the “angle?”