The science of sitting comfortably

Many women are put off cycling by saddle discomfort, and many more suffer in silence. First female rider home at the 2016 Transcontinental Race, Emily Chappell, explores what the cycling industry is – and could be – doing to get women riding comfortably

- Emily Chappell

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 ride, and assumed this must be normal. I’ve endured some painful days in the saddle – especially towards the end of multi-day events – but it had never occurred to me that for some people, this was a permanent state of affairs.

Cycling’s culture of ‘noble suffering’ has a lot to answer for. And as well as those suffering in silence, there are all the riders we’ll never get to meet, because the pain they experienced when they first sat on a saddle was enough to deter them from cycling altogether.

Carly, a theatre professional from London, was so excited when she got her first bike that she rode it every day, ignoring the increasing discomfort in her vulva until she ended up in A&E, being told by doctors that an infected follicle was on the verge of sepsis.

“It swelled to about the size of a satsuma,” she recalls. “I was sent home, and essentially just cried in pain for three days.”