The million dollar cyclist

Today I'm going to talk to you about cycling shoes and how lack of impact affects your bones, but first I'm going to tell you the story of the million dollar cyclist.

Two years before the great Indurain won his first Tour de France, David Lockwood, a Spartan-looking Californian, was training day and night with the dream of competing in the Tour.

He did not do badly, excelling in some of the races, but in one he had the misfortune to run over an old woman and kill her.

The tragic accident was the end of David's sporting career.

Not only did he have to live with the weight of the tragedy, but also with the abandonment of the Cycling Federation.

The federation did not want to hear anything when the old woman's family sued for a million dollars.

David was buried alive.

Without a team, with the moral burden of having caused a death and with a debt of millions of dollars.

It took two years for David to find the motivation to get out of the hole.

Although he had no team, he would take part in the Tour de France.

He needed to prove to himself that he could finish the race.

He would do it alone, starting 3 hours before the peloton and on a poor diet of Coca-Cola and bread.

In the Tour, several people helped him, the ONCE team let him sleep in a motorhome and the organisation gave him a pass to get over the mountains.

David remembers it as one of the best moments of his life.

Human beings have these contrasts. Some find pleasure in the extreme suffering of overcoming a peak and others would pay money to never do it.

David finished the 91 Tour, the first one won by Indurain. And the feat of our champion will always be accompanied by the fulfilled dream of a Californian.

As for cycling shoes, I don't know what David's shoes were like, but if they were like today's, he would have had foot problems for sure.

And not only because they cause deviation of the big toe, bunions, stiff feet, disabled toes... but because of a more important one: bone loss.

The lack of impact makes the bones more brittle. But there's more, bone loss and bone degradation have been shown to cause ageing.

And in cycling, as with cushioned shoes, feet don't feel, there is no impact.

That's exactly why Shimano has come out with a line of minimalist shoes. So that you can at least feel the pedal and the force you apply.

Plus, their wide last prevents your big toe from deviating, and you know that a slight deviation is associated with less blood flow to your feet.

Almost nothing.

It's true that cycling will never be for your feet like running without cushioning or walking, but for those who love cycling and want to strengthen their feet, there are now Shimano shoes:

• For road

• For mountain biking

Bone health starts with your feet.

- Antonio Caballo