The science of sitting comfortably

I’ve heard more than my fair share of saddle sore stories, but even I was shocked when I received a message from a successful ultra-cyclist after a short training ride. “It suddenly dawned on me that I was cycling without pain,” she enthused. “Normally a ride begins with intense pinching agony while I find a comfortable way to sit. Now I just fit! Is this how nice cycling is for everyone else?”

The rider in question had recently recovered from labiaplasty – a surgical procedure that reduces the size of the labia minora. What shocked me was not the radical solution she had resorted to, but the fact that she had, until then, been in agony on every