Michael Hanslip Coaching

If you want to go faster, you have to pedal harder

November 2025
Writing | October 2025

Viking's Spring Novice Program (number 26)

09/11/25 11:55 Filed in: Riding
A quick count reveals that last Spring's two novice classes were my 24th and 25th programs for the Viking's Club. That's a lot. After several years of running 3 classes per year, and then several more years of running 2 classes per year; this year a decision was made to modify things a bit. I admit apprehension at first - why change what works? Except maybe it wasn't working as well as it could. More coaches. More students. One class.
 
And it is brilliant. Three "head" coaches and three more "assistant" coaches means that individuals can get some one-on-one help while a bunch of up to 30 people can practice proper bunch riding skills. We took them out on the street for the final 3 weeks and it turned out there were never more than 21 persons present - AusCycling limits on road coaching are 7 students per coach. Perfect. Each group had an assistant coach too, so the ratios were actually lower than needed. We took 3 bunches out initially, based on people's experience and did 20 minutes on the road. The final two weeks were one big happy bunch. They did great too.
 
I love seeing people who came through the course turning up for racing. I think most of the assistant coaches came through the novice program in past years too.
 
CCC - my club - had a novice program once but for whatever reason does not do one currently. That leaves the Viking program as the only game in Canberra if you are interested in getting experienced instruction and practice for bunch riding/race skills. Starting every September - you're too late for this one (it's over). But there's always next year!

Online shoe sizing

03/11/25 18:54 Filed in: Gear
There are many brands of shoes - I am specifically talking cycling shoes in this entry, but it could just as easily apply to running shoes or dress shoes too (there are many, many brands out there). A few of those brands have local dealers, who have some of their offerings. But there are way more choices than there are places to try the shoes on for fit.
I recently used the Trek 30-day trial for a pair of Trek shoes. My local Trek shop didn't have them in stock. They got me the pair I wanted to try. They were too big. Trek does make 1/2 size shoes, but Australia only gets whole sizes. A full size smaller would have been too small. I got my refund (shoes had barely been out of the box so I hope they get sold to someone else as new) and continued looking.
A few brands know they are poorly represented in physical stores, so they have online sizing guides to walk you through the process of selecting the correct size. Northwave, my usual cycling shoe brand, is one of them. I followed their steps and the suggested size puts me right on the line between the one I wear and the same size in "wide". Which is right on my experience with wearing them - about OK for width, could be a tad wider.
Armed with the knowledge that my self-assessment of shoe sizes is OK, I went to the Lake website and ran through their 4-step process for selecting the correct size and model (that latter bit is a realisation that they use different lasts at different levels and the optimal fit might be a specific shoe and size, not just a size). It gave me a size in wide in a specific shoe that is currently not in stock. Since my kangaroo crash in May, I've been looking for new shoes as the ones I had on that night got beaten up by being dragged along the ground.
 
Meanwhile I did the same fitting process with my partner's feet. She has been in some shoes for the past years but lately they've been hurting her feet. Feet change and what was once good is now less good. Lake has a model that seemed appropriate for her feet. I sized. She ordered. They fit well. Given the price and the fact that returns are OK until you place cleats on the shoe, I wanted to make sure she was happy before I put the cleats on. Turns out they were a good choice.
Thanks Lake. Your system works.
 
Sub-story. Why no more Northwave? With a few diversions into other brands, I have been wearing Northwave shoes most of the time since 1997. That's a long time in one brand. They had basically flat soles. A couple of years ago they wanted to make their shoes both stiffer and lighter. To get a stiff flat carbon sole requires a certain thickness. But if you make the sole shaped like a boat hull, you can use less thickness of carbon and still get stiffness from the shape. Except that bit I mentioned above about being on the cusp of the wide shoe - in the boat shaped sole I never got comfortable. They only produce a select few shoes - in one colour that I can see - in the wide model. Whereas Lake seems to make all their shoes in narrow, standard and wide widths. The Lake shoes are $50 more than the Trek shoes were, but $50 less than the Northwave shoes would be.
 
Hopefully they get some in stock soon.

© 2020-25 Michael Hanslip Email Me