07/08/2025
preps ⚙️
I pretty much go with the flow when it comes to my approach for races. Guided by feeling, a pigeon can get quite far apparently 🕊️
But riding with top notch gear, actually deserves more than an ‘educated guess’. And my body needs it as well (ask my knees)
For the upcoming Silk Road Mountain Race in Kyrgyzstan, the Eindhoven crew tuned my bike heavily with the best & components around to get the job done
Besides 30.000m of climbing, the ‘SRMR’ serves a painful amount of hike a bike as well. Rumours go that there will even be a 35km hiking stretch in the route 🤯
Anyways, plenty of reason for my neighbours of to supply me with suitable footwear. Footwear that’s slightly different from what I usually wear, but as fashionable possible 😎
So with new shifters, a new dropper seat post for my .cc and new shoes, basically all my touch points on the bike changed compared to 560 & XL
Time for a proper bike fit!
My former team mate of welcomed my and me at his ‘boutique’ in the .nl store
A very thorough intake & examination were followed by some measurements and before I knew, the cleats on my new shoes were changed and adjusted
Bike measurements followed and Geert immediately noticed my saddle position was way too much forward. This could be an unwanted trigger for my sensitive knees to turn bad
Some iterations lead to a saddle position that’s over 15mm further back compared to the old position. Right after changing, my feeling on the bike was way more sturdy and solid
We concluded to session with the ‘nice to have’ of adding an extra spacer under my stem to make the long and consecutive days in the saddle slightly more comfortable
picked me up from the store on her Grizl and together we rode home over many MTB trails that were completely new to me. Even within 10-20km from home 😍
