I've started doing longer rides and found that after an hour or two, that I really start noticing stiffness/soreness in my lower neck and shoulder area. Not sharp pains, just an ache from carrying too much tension.

I try to consciously drop my shoulders to relax them, but I naturally fall back into a less comfortable position. I think my frame is a little bit small for me, and this means my torso to upper-arm angle is considerably less than 90 degree - more like 75 from some photos.

I'm wondering whether the shoulder tension is more likely to be due to having the bars too low (the bike is a racing CX bike), or whether I need to stretch out more with a longer stem (current stem is only 90mm)?

From what I've read, most indicate that overstretching causes neck pain, but it seems possible that being too crunched up could also be bad.

Here's a older photo of me on the bike. I now bend my elbows more than in this photo to aim for a 45-50 degree torso angle, but this tends to bring me even more forwards over the bars and reduces the torso-arm angle further.

Giant-bike-fit-heels-on-peddle-saddle-forward-15mm.jpg

To compound matters I've had to bring the saddle forward so that I am sitting in a comfortable spot (widest part). For some reason (sit bones?) I was getting a lot of pressure with the saddle in the optimal position for balance / KOPS and had to bring the saddle forward to ensure that I naturally land on the widest part.

I've ordered two stems: a riser stem that will raise the bars about 40mm (but also bring them closer about 7mm due to the angle), and a longer 120mm stem at the same angle as the one fitted (when flipped, it will increase reach 27mm and height by 14mm).

I'll obviously try them both, and ultimately my feeling will be what decides it. However I'd be interested in hearing your opinions about which solution is more likely to fix my problem.

Thanks!