Structure in the upper
Structure in the upper
The need to keep the foot aligned with the knee means that the upper of a cycling shoe also plays a vital controlling role.
While the sole clearly plays an important part in preventing the shoe from flexing between heel and toe, the upper must prevent the foot from moving within the shoe.
To do so, it relies on mechanical structure in the upper, whether it be a natural stiffness in new leather or reinforcements to synthetic materials.
A worn shoe may be comfortable, but when it fails to support the foot, it has reached the end of its natural life. So how to tell if a shoe has worn out?
“We make a general recommendation of between 18 months and two years,” Wall says. Hewitt recommends trying on a new shoe and feeling the difference from your existing footwear.
The heel cup is a key element of the shoe’s structure, and supports the hindfoot.
“You can control the foot quite a lot from the back,” Hewitt says. “We look at how rigid the heel cup is, and how closely fitted.”
Wall warns against the oft-witnessed phenomena of riders performing impromptu calf raises when trying on new shoes, and deducing – wrongly – that if their heels rise from the shoes when they stand on the balls of their feet, that the shoes are too large.
“Theoretically, you should only be pulling up when you’re sprinting out of the saddle,” Wall says.
“It’s not an issue that your foot moves within the shoe. You don’t want to have it locked down in the shoe, because it will stop it from moving. It’s controlling the foot on the downstroke that is key.”