So it turns out there are a lot of you out there who are details geeks like me which is great! So I thought I’d share quick bit of info around Road/Triathlon Cleat Position. First off, there are plenty of good articles out there on the basics and how to start from the beginning so we won’t go there.
Also, if you are not sure where to begin in general, then please get your bike fitted properly by someone who knows what they are doing. Be careful here with who you choose, often, the most opinionated person on your group ride wont be the best person. If we look at cleat position in this one, and in particular the forward and aft position of your foot. Most bike fitters and articles you read will recommend to set the cleat up under the ball of your foot and this is a very good place to start.
For road cyclists, that will mean a good balance of comfort and power transfer with excellent muscle recruitment from the Glutes, Hamstrings and Quads if the rest of the bike fit is spot on. It will also mean you are using a fair amount of your calves when you pedal as part of the contraction in the circle of the pedal stroke. Hence why cyclists always have skinny and good looking calves!
This means when you get out of your seat to lay some power down you will be responsive and directly transferring power to the pedal spindle, which in turns transfers to the drive train. There will be times when you need to move the cleat back under slightly on a road bike, so keep an open mind. For Triathlon, we need to think slightly different, in particular for Endurance Triathlon, such as 70.3 or Ironman. We don’t want to use up all of that calf muscle on the bike as we need it to run properly! One excellent method which sadly is not shared by many is to move the cleat to the rear of the foot as much as we can. What this does is keep the same level of Glute, Hamstring, IT band and Quad engagement but it does not place the same load on the calf muscle itself. How much you ask? For example, my own shoes are now slammed back right to the back setting of the cleat.
And if I was going to be concentrating 100% on Ironman, I would even go one step further and get plates which would allow me to go even further back. The caveat here is don’t just go slam them back as you may and most likely will need to adjust your seat position forward to accommodate the change which will not be a bad thing. It offers an excellent relief from calf wear and tear, and can even help relieve some Achilles strain as well. The only downside is if you, like me, ride your road bike as well and even want to race. Basically, in short, you will have no sprint when you get out of the seat due to the cleat position. So I take the good with the bad ( I never had a sprint anyway) and just stay seated more often, which plays into the strengths of Triathletes anyway due to the Glute/Hamstring dominance we develop. The second part of this to consider is your hip width and how that relates to the cleat width placement and Q Factor, we will leave that for another day.
Hope that helps someone out there, reach out if we can help further.
