Fit Profile: Gui Campos
Gui Campos, a professional triathlete coached by the legendary Mary Beth Ellis, contacted us after seeing Josh's cleanup work on Chris' messy TT bike on Instagram. As a first year pro with a great run leg but a bike leg that often left him too far behind to display his run prowess, he's been looking for every advantage possible. He flew into Portland from Boulder, Colorado, crashed at our just-set-up new space on Alberta, and then spent the day with us.
Gui sent us this image ahead of time, and it told us a lot: chiefly, he wasn't very comfortable in his current position. His forearms are straight ahead, and it looks like he's strangling those aerobars. His right leg is almost completely extended, suggesting that he's got a dead spot in his pedal stroke. His head is up, in the dreaded "periscope head" position. Gui presented an interesting puzzle: how do we take an athlete who isn't injured (where we would simply try to optimize recovery), improve his comfort, but also improve his speed. Gui came to us with a fit outcome goal of increasing his "drop" (the height from saddle to elbow pad) from 10 cm to 12 cm, which doesn't sound like much but can be a lot. I'm happy to say we achieved all these goals. So what did we do?
Here's Gui's original position, once we got him onto our Purely Custom fit bike. Looks pretty good, yeah? This was definitely a case of making fairly small changes in order to optimize his comfort. One thing we noticed was his low back: there is a clear abrupt kink in his low back, suggesting that his pelvis isn't rotated forward, forcing him into an unsustainable position. We ended up angling his saddle down to facilitate that rotation, changing his saddle to the excellent new ISM PN 3.1, raising his saddle height 12 mm, and bringing his saddle back slightly, to 79.5 degrees from a very steep 80.
This position, although the picture doesn't suggest a huge difference, looks quite different to us. Gui looks more "active," with his energy moving forward. His elbows aren't choked underneath him, and his back has flattened out somewhat, with that sacrum angle clearly shallowing. His head is tucked lower, which will make him faster over the long haul. Most important, Gui reports to us that he's more comfortable in his new position, which is our eternal goal: comfort leads to power which leads to speed. But you don't have to take our word for it! Here's what Gui has to say, along with a picture of him out on the roads in Boulder. We love seeing that his elbows and forearms are in a more relaxed place, and that he's been able to maintain his new position out on the road.
"For the 2018 season me and my coach Mary Beth Ellis decided to 'think outside the box' and try to focus on a different type of racing that was—until now—unexplored territory for me. My goal for the season is to strengthen my bike and focus on very hilly courses in Europe. When I accepted the challenge I also realized I wasn't fully satisfied with my bike position and with her guidance we outlined the details that I needed to work on. On the top of that, I also wanted to be as specific as I could regarding the minimal details such as hands angle/position, head position with aero helmet, saddle position and type and much more. Chris and Josh not only made sure they were covering every single detail of my bike fit but also making sure we were all interacting and "leading" the session. We spent several HOURS testing everything from shoes/insoles to aerobars/extensions type and height. Their knowledge regarding cycling and triathlon is remarkable and facilities of the studio are also amazing. If you're serious about finding the your best combination aero x power or simply want to find a comfortable position to spend hours doing what you love over the saddle I'd def recommend them!"
