Mick Habgood
Cycling-Specialist Podiatrist
Founder and Designer at Mik.Fit
Mick is a long way from his home in Sydney but with Europe being the unquestionably HQ of the cycling world, it would be inconceivable to be doing this anywhere outside of the continent.
Mick's career in cycling is undoubtedly due to his first four years as the Podiatrist for one of the UK's biggest ski retailers when first arriving to the UK. "Static sports", those where the foot doesn't flex (typically at the toes) due to wearing entirely rigid shoes/boots, result in a completely different set of biomechanical movements of the foot and it forced Mick to think outside the box. Over the following ski seasons, he developed his own biomechanical protocols for eliminating the typical ski boot-related pains and by doing so, he also realised what those skiing insoles could do for cyclists. This realisation and visualisation of the foot moving in a similar way within stiff-soled cycling shoes, would completey change his professional focus and trajectory thereafter.
In 2013, Mick approached Cyclefit in central London with the idea of creating a cycling-specific Podiatry clinic that's now in its I2th year of collaboration. Mick is currently the Biomechanical Podiatrist of the UC World Tour team EF Education-Easypost Pro Cycling and works with British Cycling's Podium and Development squads across all cycling disciplines in both the abled-bodied and Paralympic programs. In preparation for the Paris 2024, Mick also worked for USA Cycling's Track teams as well as the Japanese Endurance Track Cycling squad in the lead up to the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Kristen Faulkner and her two Olympic Golds
Cycling Foot Biomechanics
Is Not Running Biomechanics
The big toe joint (the 1st Metatarsal Phalangeal Joint) is the most important joint in the foot and ankle for cycling. Think of it as the biomechanical sweet spot when it comes to the direction of movement of the foot throughout each revolution. Regardless of your intentions to mentally control the movements of that joint, your body will always search for contact here during every downstroke and ultimately, the quicker it makes forceful contact with the ground beneath it, the greater and faster the transfer of power from the body to the pedal.
The thing is we take our everyday biomechanics and we put these on the bike and it’s up to these day-to-day, “walking” biomechanics that determine how efficient our feet are going to be when they then move from side-to-side in the cycling shoes. What our bodies do very well in life however, is to find the path of least resistance during our 7-10K+ daily steps and if the body doesn’t want to walk through the key joints of the 1st MPJ, the ankle, the knee or the hip efficiently, the body will find a way to walk around it. In its most simplistic form, the movement of walking through our feet can be referred to as the “Theory of Sagittal Plane Biomechanics” and these blockages and deviations result in the wear-and-tear signs such as bunions, toe deformities and hard skin as three examples.
What’s important in cycling, is where the 1st MPJ is positioned when the talus (the bone that sits on top of the foot and underneath the tibia & fibula) is in it’s most aligned and nuetral position. If the 1st MPJ does not contact the ground forcefully in this aligned talar position, it will be impossible to make a meaningful connection to maintain this talar alginment. As such, the foot will always search for contact with the 1st MPJ in the downstroke and quite simply, the talus, the knee and the hip will follow suit. Alignment is everything in cycling. Align the 1st MPJ and the talus and the joints above it, and we create a kinetic chain the works more efficiently in the “sagittal” plane. Once the pressure is distibuted throughout the foot, your foot not only feels completely connected to the pedal, but it leads to greater comfort, increased stability and greater power transfer on the bike.
The cycling community is surprisingly small and I’d been recommended by Biomechanist, Dr Barney Wainwright from the Leeds University to assist with Japan’s Long-Track Olympic Cycling squad. He returned from his initial fitting sessions and noticed the potential amongst the squad to enhance their positions by stabilising their feet. I joined them at their Olympic Velodrome in sleepy Izu, about 130km southwest of Tokyo.
Izu is what I can only describe as deep Japan. It’s peaceful, clean, and quiet. A leafy residential town with a surprisingly huge cycling presence as it’s the home of Keirin racing. Hidden amongst its rolling hills under the eye of Mt Fuji sits the Japanese Cycling Centre. A sprawling park consisting of a cycling-themed adventure park, 4 outdoor velodromes, and the incredibly designed indoor velodrome would eventually house the Olympics in 2021.
Team Japan
Under Mt Fuji to Tokyo 2021
Carbon-fibre track shoes are by no means a new concept and they'd already been used extensively but all good ideas can be vastly improved. From the moment Mick started seeing British Cycling's riders on the track, it was clear that his custom cycling orthotics (insoles) had to be further innovated to be considered truly game-changing. If the sole of each foot was already optimised by the correction of the orthotics, then why couldn’t the foot be optimised too by elevating the orthotic and wrapping the foot also in carbon.
The goal was to: l) digitise the process; 2) combine the lastest 3D printing technologies with Formula One materials and techniques; 3) keep the shoe's aesthetics, aerodynamics and weight as the forefront of its design; a most importantly 4) wrap the orthotic's carbon-fibre 360° around the athlete's feet to completely encapsulate them with an entirely rigid exoskelton. If the foot position was optimised and then completely wrapped, it would transfer every ounce of pressure from the body into the pedal for maximum power. What was lacking was time to focus on it. That was however, until the world stopped with the pandemic in February, 2020.
After reaching out to l6 different companies, only one thought it was worth discussing the project further. That one company however, were leaders in making carbon-fibre components for Formula One cars and this collaboration would see out the project's initial 15 month development phase. Fast forward to Sept 2021, and Mick returned to London with a working prototype of the World's first 3D print-moulded, carbon-fibre time-trial shoe and put that prototype in the hands of EF Pro Cycling's team owner. He decided then and there that he wanted it for his team's "Project Yellow".
The Pandemic Project
Instead of Sourdough
Stefan Bissigger of EF Education-EasyPost Pro Cycling team’s 2022 roster had a very realistic chance to win the opening stage time-trial of that year’s Tour de France in Copenhagen. It was a 13km that suited his technical style so the team went full gas to achieve that goal. In the off-season, they targeted seven different areas for marginal gains: new bike, wheels, tires, skin-suit, position, helmet and shoes, so the goal was set.
Stefan is the only athlete that has ever been “pushed” to work with Mick. Of course, if the data hadn’t been positive or if Stefan himself wasn’t confident that Mick’s involvement wasn’t providing a measurable gain, then the team would have responded. But the foot is largely disregarded as a means for objective and measurable gains in cycling and Stefan was losing a significant amount of power through his. His professionalism ensured he would at least listen and take part but as soon as the custom orthotic insoles were fitted, it “clicked”. The instant connection he felt to his pedal and the improved tracking of his knee meant that he was immediately on board with the Mik.Fit process for the custom shoes.
The opening stage of the TdF was wet and Stefan wouldn’t wear the yellow jersey that year. With the pressure off his shoulders though come August 2022 in the European Time-Trial Championships, Stefan would beat two Goliath’s of the sport that day in form of the reigning Olympic and the two-time reigning European champions by 0.34 seconds over a 21km course. A nice reminder that by collectively improving several aspects, however small they may appear in isolation, can lead to bigger gains collectively. This is simply referred to as the “Theory of Marginal Gains“.
As of 2025, Mick is now in his fourth season working with EF Pro Cycling (EF Education-EasyPost Men’s World Tour team and EF-Oatly-Cannondale Women’s World Tour team).
EF Pro & Project Yellow
From the TdF to Euro Champs Victory
Lily Williams and Gavin Hoover, two stand-out members of USAC’s endurance track cycling squad, approached Mik.Fit shortly after Stefan Bissegger’s European Time-Trial Championship victory to work on the next round of custom shoes. USA Cycling’s new Endurance coach had previously worked with Mick at the Japanese Track Cycling team and foot optimisation was at the top of his new squad’s agenda.
There’s always a level of scepticism when approaching something for the first time and as an organisation, USAC were no different to anyone else. At the time, they certainly didn’t look at the foot as a component to be optimised but given their lofty goals, they were clearly keen to explore the process. The team started with a select group of rides at the Nations Cup track meet in Glasgow and as the overall team’s confidence grew in Mik.Fit’s approach, so too did the work expand across USAC’s whole Sprint and Endurance squads.
Kristen Faulkner from EF Education-Oatly Pro Cycling would also eventually join the USA Women’s Team Pursuit team alongside Lily and their quest for Olympic gold was in full steam. Whilst Gavin would retire in the months leading up to the Paris Olympics, Lily’s invaluable feedback lead to her being the first professional athlete to track test the first Mik.Fit 360 prototype (custom TT shoe with the malleable upper). Her involvement and trust lead to the shoe’s further development and she wore them on the track at the Paris Olympics. Lily, Kristen and the rest of the USA women’s Team Pursuit would go on to win the Paris Olympic Gold medal with a winning time of 4:04.306, one tenth shy of the current World Record mark.
USA Cycling
From Glasgow to Los Angeles
Mick has been working with athletes from British Cycling on both the AB (Abled-Bodied) and Paralympic programs since 2015. He has seen and been involved in their progression since they started on the development squads to their current roles as both mentors to younger riders but also as Olympic medalists, Olympic Champions, World Champions, European Champions and Commonwealth Champions.
Over the years, Mick’s work with Team GB has progressed from primarily being with the track riders to working with every cycling discipline that has and requires a power component. BMX, Cyclo-X, MTB, Road, Time-Trial and most recently with athletes from British Triathlon.
Innovation takes time. Innovation never stopes. There’s so much more to come.
GBR: Where It Began
Three Olympics and Counting
"It's not just about the insoles and how they fit in the shoe, but really about how to make the foot activate and perform at its best by customizing the insoles with the right fitting shoe to your foot.
Mik.Fit is about more comfort and there are watts to be gained here."
Alison Jackson
EF–Oatly–Cannondale Team Rider | 2023 winner of Paris–Roubaix Femmes
All Optimisation Needs a Solid Starting Point. Form the Foundation First.
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