THE SHORT ANSWER
Phil Burt, former team sky and gb bike fitter who has fitted elite cyclists including bradley wiggins, victoria pendleton, chris hoy, chris froome, and grant thomas, has appeared on the Roadman Cycling Podcast 2 times. Here's where Burt lands on coaching. The positions below are drawn from those conversations, quoted directly.
WHO IS PHIL BURT?
Phil Burt is the physio behind a generation of British Olympic gold medals and Tour de France wins. As Lead Physiotherapist at British Cycling and bike-fit lead at Team Sky during their dominant decade, he is the person riders went to when a knee, back, or saddle issue threatened a season. His Bike Fit book turned that clinical work into a manual that amateur fitters now use as a reference. For riders chasing a few more durable watts without injury, his approach — anchor the saddle, then the cleat, then the cockpit, and never optimise aero at the expense of physiology — is the modern gold standard.
BURT ON COACHING
Burt’s key positions on coaching.
- Position is built bottom-up: feet and saddle first, then cockpit. Optimising the front end before the foundation gives unstable fits.
- Aero is a fitting constraint, not a starting point. The most aerodynamic position you can hold for the duration of the event beats a sharper position you cannot.
- Saddle pain is almost always a position problem before it is a saddle-shape problem. Fit the rider; the saddle follows.
- Most amateur fits are too aggressive at the front end and too high at the saddle — riders chase pro positions their flexibility cannot support.
- A bike fit is a process, not a single session. Every change deserves a few weeks of riding before the next adjustment.
IN BURT’S OWN WORDS
Verbatim from Phil Burt’s appearances on the podcast.
“If people are out there that are suffering with lower back pain, crank length weirdly can make the biggest difference to that cuz it allows your hips to open up.”
“The craze around crank length that we've been talking about for a long time and been doing the manipulating, but it's really coming to the fore now and you see companies next year dropping crank length, Canyon, Giant, they're all announcing that they're dropping their crank lengths cuz we now know it's not relevant to power production and is a parameter that should be manipulated for performance, comfort, and everything.”
“Extra extra small bike has the same stance width as an extra extra large. In other words, those people put their feet in the same place in the bike. It makes no sense to me.”
“I would go crank length first every time because I'm fixing everything else around it if I don't get the crank length right.”
HEAR IT ON THE PODCAST
Episodes where Phil Burt covers coaching and related ground.
FREQUENTLY ASKED
What does Phil Burt say about coaching?
Phil Burt, former team sky and gb bike fitter who has fitted elite cyclists including bradley wiggins, victoria pendleton, chris hoy, chris froome, and grant thomas, has appeared on the Roadman Cycling Podcast 2 times. Here's where Burt lands on coaching. The positions below are drawn from those conversations, quoted directly.
What is Burt's main point on coaching?
Position is built bottom-up: feet and saddle first, then cockpit. Optimising the front end before the foundation gives unstable fits.
Which Roadman Cycling Podcast episodes cover Phil Burt on coaching?
Burt discusses coaching in these episodes: "I Tried A Bike Fit From Team GB Bike Fitter (Here's What Happened)", "5 Bike Fit Mistakes | Roadman Cycling Podcast".