Hands up if you neglect stretching before or after a ride. OK, now hold them there for 15 seconds as a lesson. Stretching plays a key role in both preparing your body for a ride and helping it recover from long periods in an unnatural position on the bike, because humans evolved to run away from woolly mammoths, not hunch over handlebars on the way up Alpe d’Huez.
Sports physiotherapist and osteopath Lewis Wood is the founder of the Body Align Clinic (bodyalignclinic.com) and has worked with many athletes, including at the Olympics. He has devised two routines: a pre-ride warm-up and a postride session, and there’s a key difference between them.
‘We need to use dynamic stretches
