ANDY LEWIS ‘SLAMMED AND READY TO SMASH IT!'

The big changes for me this month are positional. On 10 June, I went for a bike-fit at Bike Loft in St Albans, and the changes made were the opposite to what I’d expected. I’d assumed that my 56cm frame was one size too big for me and that I’d need all the contact points brought closer together. But no! Fitter Simon Barnes asked how I was feeling on the bike and when I described the tension in my shoulders, he responded: “OK, I am going to do one thing”. With that, he slammed the stem, lowering it by 20mm. To my surprise, it felt better. He fitted a 10mm-shorter stem and it felt comfier still.

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We then played around with my saddle position, and another surprise: shifting it up 10mm and back 20mm seemed to lessen the load through my quads while naturally raising my cadence by about 10rpm. Suddenly I was producing the same power for noticeably less effort. The changes I’d made previously were, I realise now, counter-productive – I was just making life harder for myself. It will be interesting to see what difference this makes in my upcoming sportive and road bike TTs.