Cycling Weekly | August 22, 2019 | 47FITNESSike your guns, saddles should be smooth
and hard,” decrees Rule 61 of the º
famously machismo-drenched manifesto.
Apparently it ’s a sin to have more than
three millimetres of padding, and
switching saddles is uncool because “a
hardman would instead cut a hole in it to
relieve pressure on the delicate area.”
Think again, lads, because you’re
wrong. Very wrong. A nd I should know
— because I took Jens Voigt ’s ‘shut
up legs’ principle and applied it to my
saddle sores. From months of riding in
an aggressive position on an aggressive
saddle, I ended up with labial swelling
caused by impact injury which got so bad
I had to have surgery. From my hospital
bed, I wrote an article for the Guardian
that got far more attention than was
comfortable for a girl who generally
spends her time seeking out quiet
country lanes.
My saddle sores story was for
several days the most read article on
the Guardian’s Lifestyle page, getting
hundreds of shares and comments. I
had written it not just for fellow cyclists
but also for the medical community who
might then be able to prevent experiences
like mine (which included an incorrect
cancer diagnosis). The response was
enormous; it began raining saddles —
hallelujah — as well as silicon saddle
covers and bibshorts, not to mention the
dozens of emails from men and women
who’d been through similar.
Since going under the knife and telling
all about it, I have won a Paracycling
World Cup bronze medal and am back
to full training. When the fitness editor
of Cycling Weekly asked me to write