Hey Team!

This week will be short and sweet! Sorry i missed last week, with family travel and my son’s first travel competition i honestly forgot to write a coaches corner! This week we’ll talk about saddles. I’ll cover saddle sizes and shapes, which may work best for you and touch upon the cut out and why you may or may not need it, and how a saddle may not have a literal cutout but might still have relief. I’ll also talk about how to actually sit on a saddle pertaining to road positioning.

First and foremost: this entire post revolves around sitting correctly on a saddle. To cover this, we will talk a little bit about human anatomy. Specifically pelvic rotation and Ischial tuberosities. The ischial tuberosities, more commonly referred to in cycling as "sit bones", is how you should support your body on the saddle. The distance between these two bones determines what size saddle you should be on. IF this measurement is correct, and your saddle size is correct, this will allow you to anteriorly rotate your hips, opening up your hip angle and allowing you to push against the saddle for more power.

About 15 years ago, saddles started coming in sizes. Most brands had some way of discerning sizes(Fiziik had snake, bull and chameleon. Trek had 145mm and 153mm, specialized 130,143,155,165 etc). Having the correct width saddle will allow you to sit on top of the saddle, on your sit bones, and alleviate soft tissue pressure. This brings up the cut outs, while cutouts are nice and when on a properly sized saddle allow even more pressure relief, they aren’t necessary for a properly fit saddle. Getting sized correctly is the biggest factor to a saddle. Too narrow and your hips will rock and cause unnecessary soft tissue pain. Too wide and you’ll constantly be sliding forward on your saddle and riding on the nose.

After learning what size saddle you need, the next decision is shape. Each has their benefits and truthfully at this point it comes down to preference and comfort. The two biggest options(ignoring the outliers and extreme shapes, think ISM or Selle San Marco) are traditional or long nose, and short/snub nose. I’ve found in my fitting that most people seem to be swapping to the snub nosed saddles especially as a racer. The short nose allows for an aggressive rotation of the hips without the nose of the saddle causing pressure. That said, a Long nose saddle can still allow for an aggressive position. The best advice I can give you is to try a saddle from a company that allows returns, or even better, try a couple shapes during your bike fit(did I mention everyone should get a bike fit?).

Short and sweet this week. Let me know if you have any follow up questions and head to Pop’s or your local shop to get properly sized or even better, schedule your bike fit!