For me this was a timly thread. NOs88s link was a big help. Last summer we had several Canadians come down and spend some time riding with our group, snow birds, and after a rather vigerous ride one of our regulars, who I admire, and one of to Canadians commented that I wasn't pedaling flat footed and that my saddle must be too high. I assured them that I had a professional fitting with all the lasers and computer graphics that came with it and I was still pretty close to the measurements set by the fitter. They still insisted I was toe down and that I would develope more power with a flat stroke. I went back to the fitter and he insisted my saddle was at the right height. At first I felt that maybe learning to pedal flat and lowering my saddle, even if the fitter assured me it was set correctly, would improve my cycling in a group. Long story short, it didn't work.

After months of forcing my heals down I was slipping backwards in our group rides. Sure I could keep up on long fast runs in the flats but when it came to closing a gap, sprinting and short climbs I was doing worse than I had about two years ago. Subjective some might say but with programs like Strava it was also measurable. Maybe I was just getting older I thought. However about two weeks ago I went back to the measurements on my bike the fitter had made and stopped thinking about where my toes were on my stroke and I am riding more like I did before. Sure I am not the first on a sprint everytime but I am back towards the front. Sure I don't climb with the big dogs on some of the longer climbs but the little dogs are no longer nipping at my feet. And my Strava times are comong back to what they were before. Not one time during the flat pedal stroke lower saddle experiment did I come close to setting a PB on a climb, sprint or local TT. Looking at the Steve Hogg site NOS88 posted let me know that at least for me a natural stroke is slightly toe down and above all relaxed not forced.