Which results in more power or does it really matter. Toes pointing down or toes pointing out ( flat footed )?
Way too many variables to say including, but not limited to: saddle height, cleat position, seat tube angle, saddle fore/aft and the nuances of your particular physiology… and to the second point, no, it doesn’t really matter if neither style gives you issues. More likely to experience calf tightness with pointy twinkletoes though!
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We talked about this on episode 185 of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast. You can check this out here:
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Thread dredge…pedaling is super individual and dependent on many things. One aspect of pedaling and laying down power in my recent experience is purely accidental. Long story but, I built up a new TT bike recently and by accident the saddle position ended up a little lower than previous. I’ve had many fits from professional fitters and some have coached me to sit “hard” in the saddle to help with being still while pedaling at high power. What’s crazy is as I fatigued (slightly) during this 20 minute FTP test (outside) I noticed when I focused on sitting hard in the saddle and being still I gained 20-30+ watts easily! What was really going on was I was dropping my heel slightly by sitting hard in the saddle. When I focused on this before with a higher saddle I wasn’t able to drop the heel. There is more going on but that’s the main point I wanted to write.
Anyways, big takeaway to those reading is being fit in a lab is one thing but, fit in the real world at maximum steady state power can be very different. In no way am I saying the fit was bad. 99% of the fit is really good. Just that it took an accident and a test to tease out something new.
Time will tell whether this new position and pedaling style (for me) will show consistent results. So far so good. Nearly hit my best 20 minute TT bike power but, ran out of road and not close to fresh! Hahaha 18:30-ish and the road T’d into a major highway…
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