Super spikes are causing a seismic shift – so why won't athletes admit it?
When the double Olympic 1500m medallist Nick Willis first tried athletics’ super spikes last month, they didn’t feel wildly different. A bit more cushioned, sure, which reduced the rigid impact of hitting the hard track. But then he checked his watch. It showed he had run a lung-busting 1200m time trial two seconds faster than he expected. “I was really surprised,” he told me. “It made me a believer.”
Willis reckons the new spike technology, which is powered by a superlight and highly responsive Pebax material, is worth between one to three seconds a mile, depending whether or not someone is a “high responder”. Another Olympian I spoke to, who wanted to remain anonymous, put the advantage at two to four seconds. Either way, it amounts to a change as seismic as when cinder tracks became synthetic.
The genie is not only out of the bottle, it is granting wishes at a record rate. The men’s 5,000m and 10,000m world records? Both toppled in recent months, along with the women’s 5,000m. And then last week came the jaw-dropping sight of Elliot Giles, who has never reached a world final, running the second-fastest indoor 800m in history – 1min 43:63sec – to smash Seb Coe’s UK record.
And yet, as Willis pointed out to me, something rather curious is also happening. Not a single sponsored athlete appears to want to thank the spikes for their improved times. Giles, for instance, insisted his Air Zoom Victory spikes – which Nike claims offer a “paradigm shift” – were not a key factor in his run. “Because I’ve done well, people say it must be the shoes,” said Giles, who said he had been wearing them for a couple of years. “It’s a nonsense and a bit of an insult.”
Another Briton, Marc Scott, attributed beating his 10,000m PB by 46 seconds – which moved him above Dave Bedford and Brendan Foster in the all-time list – to “training hard and smart for years”. When the TV commentator Tim Hutchings suggested the spikes were also a factor, Scott told him to “give some credit where it’s due rather than consistently nag about the shoe technology”.
It all amounts to a curious omerta – a case of “don’t mention the spikes” – from Nike and New Balance athletes who have benefited most from the technology. “Normally you’re asked by your sponsor to give a sales pitch, and it often seems so fake and contrived,” says Willis. “And here’s your one opportunity to really preach about it. Yet they don’t.”
Willis, who works for the high-end running brand Tracksmith, knows why athletes are staying silent. “It takes away the credit for your own role and improved performance,” he says.
Giles and Scott are far from alone in not confronting the new reality. Coe, the World Athletics president, has also played down the shoes’ impact. But as one prominent voice put it to me: “Without the shoe brands, particularly
Nike, global elite athletics is dead in the water. So where’s the incentive to police it?”
So how should we react when the record books are not only being rewritten but torched in the track and field equivalent of Year Zero?
The first step, says Geoff Burns, a biomechanics expert and leading voice on shoe technology, is to “forget everything” we know about what constitutes a fast time. “In athletics, times and performances are our currency,” he says. “But some shoe companies have printed a bunch more money, and we have just had inflation. So we have to stop getting excited about fast times – because everything has changed.”
Burns also believes it is too early to say how much the new spikes improve performance – and he cautions that their impact may vary by event, as race speed, athlete mechanics and contact times with the track differ. However, he suggests that “something in the order of 1-1.5%” is a reasonable hypothesis. “It doesn’t sound like a lot but 1% is enormous at elite levels,” he says. “That’s 15m metres over 1500m. How many races are decided by much less than that?”
Burns also notes that some athletes will be high responders to the spikes, while others will see only a small improvement. And that it is entirely possible that spikes may teleport a semi-final calibre athlete to the medal podium.
Either way, it is entirely wrong for Giles and Scott to dismiss the impact of technology – doubly so, given historical times and records are deeply embedded into the soul of track and field. And this could be just the start of an ongoing revolution. Willis, for one, expects the extra cushioning on the new spikes could allow athletes to soak up more hard interval sessions, leading to quicker times.
The one small crumb of comfort is that the delay to the Tokyo Olympics has given other companies time to catch up. “People definitely didn’t realise that one or two brands had a lead,” says Willis. “At the world championships in 2019 the spikes probably did play a major role. But the other companies will be competitive come Tokyo.”
Willis, incidentally, is yet to decide which brand he will wear at the Games, but promises he won’t necessarily pick whichever one is fastest, adding: “I don’t want to give free advertising to any company I don’t think has the right ethics.”
However, he will be wearing the new spikes. “It’s hard to go back once
It is almost 11pm when Chris Froome leans closer to the screen in his hotel room in Abu Dhabi. We have been talking for 40 minutes and while he has sometimes looked tired and vulnerable Froome has been cheerful and friendly. Of course there has been some difficultywhen addressing doping in cycling and sobering memories of the accident that left him with fractured vertebrae and sternum, a shattered elbow, a collapsed lung and a double break of his femur that nearly ended his career.
Froome has also told me how much happier he is in the role of an underdog, as the new leader of a developing team in Israel Start-Up Nation (ISN), than riding at the front of a monster organisation such as Team Sky, which became Team Ineos, while winning his seven grand tours. There is less pressure and less tension. But, as he moves nearer to the camera, Froome insists the intensity of his sporting desire remains.
“It certainly does,” he says when asked if the old hunger runs as deep as ever and helps him believe he might win another unlikely Tour de France. “It is going to be a huge ask but, with four titles, I’ve come so close to the record of five. There’s nothing holding me back any more so I’d love to give it my best shot and win a fifth. A lot of it is mind over matter so I hope the body will follow.”
Froome is 35 but he talks seriously about competing at the highest level for another five years. “I’d like to, if possible. We are seeing more and more examples in professional sport with the most recent being Tom Brady, which was a pretty incredible story.”
This month Brady, aged 43, won his seventh Super Bowl. His first six had been with the remorseless New England Patriots but, just over two weeks ago, Brady achieved something more remarkable when, in his first season with a new team, he fired the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a shock victory against the champions, the Kansas City Chiefs.
“I love drawing parallels with other sports,” Froome says, “and seeing athletes going later and later into their careers. That’s due to a host of reasons but mainly because of nutrition and physiology. Everything is evolving. We’re learning more and more about our bodies and I certainly believe it’s more to do with mindset in your late 30s.”
Yet in his last race for Team Ineos three months ago, at the Vuelta a España, Froome finished three-and-ahalf hours behind the winner, Primoz you have experienced the new technology,” he concedes. After all we have
Roglic. Did he not feel humiliated – especially after a crushing first stage when he was 11 minutes adrift of Roglic? “I wouldn’t say humiliated. It was clear from the training data I wasn’t where I’d normally be if I was fighting for the win. It was frustrating and disappointing – but I could have a bit of perspective and remember that, if we rewind a year, I could barely walk.”
In June 2019, before the Critérium du Dauphiné, Froome crashed into a wall at 37mph. Apart from the multiple fractures, he lost four pints of blood and was in intensive care for weeks. “I had quite a laundry list of injuries,” he says wryly, “but I didn’t want to finish my career like that. As soon as I knew there weren’t any physical limitations I approached the rehab process like I was preparing to win a Tour – with the same dedication and commitment.”
Froome nods when I say it must still have been a frightening experience. “There were definitely a few moments. When I had more difficulty breathing it was explained that I had internal injuries, some fractured vertebrae, a fractured sternum, collapsed lung. It felt serious then. I was completely in the hands of the first responders, almost as if I was a spectator watching from afar. So that was quite scary and helpless feeling, knowing my life depended on the people working around me.”
Was there a psychological aftermath? “I found that side quite easy as I was so eager to get back on the bike. If I’d overshot a corner I’d probably have more doubt over my abilities. But this happened on a perfectly straight road. A big gust of wind took my front wheel when I had one hand on the handlebars and directed me into somebody’s driveway wall. It’s one of those freak things.
“I was lucky my wife and kids were fantastic throughout the ordeal. Kids at that age – Kellan is five and Katie is two – don’t see the bad stuff. I spent a couple of months bed-ridden and then I progressed to a wheelchair for seen, can you blame him? a few months. I managed to get on to crutches eventually and be up walking six months later. But they thought it was quite cool I had this wheelchair to cruise around the house.”
When he resumed training last year Froome’s damaged right quad generated 20% less power than the left – while scans showed a surgical screw had penetrated a bone.
Last week, Froome flew to Abu Dhabi from California, and an extensive rehab programme that has completed his recovery, and on Sunday he started the UAE Tour with his new team.
“I am in no real pain now,” he says. “I get a little discomfort when I sleep on my right side and some burning from where I had a plate inserted but it doesn’t affect me on the bike. All the gym and rehab work is translating to power on the bike. That left/right ratio is equal again.”
Froome highlights how he has been helped by ISN’s partnership with Hammerhead, which provides daily software and hardware updates based around the team’s needs with specific attention paid to Froome’s power ratio.
“I’m on the new head units we’ve got so I can see exactly what the left leg is doing versus the right leg. After speaking to Hammerhead they introduced it and that’s been a big focus for me and very handy. I’ve had great support from the Hammerhead guys.”
His objectives in the Tour of the UAE are understandably modest. “I don’t expect to be challenging for victory, but it would be nice to feel more comfortable in the peloton.”
ISN are owned by a billionaire in Sylvan Adams but what else, beyond their financial muscle, persuaded Froome to join them? “Their proposal for a grand tour programme resonated. They’ve been around for a few years but focused on the Classics. They’ve not competed to win an event like the Tour de France. They presented their ambitions to me last spring, and showed their desire for me to spearhead that project. It almost felt as if I was starting with a blank piece of paper to build a group to fight in the grand tours.
“Ineos have been winning grand tours for years. This is something new, something fresh and just what I needed. I’ve never been part of a process of recruiting riders and staff, of planning. At Ineos all these things were done for us. Now I’m part of that process and it’s as if I’ve got more ownership of it as well.”
ISN includes some of Froome’s old friends such as Darryl Impey, Dan Martin and Michael Woods. “It’s an older team with lots of experience. We’ve got guys who by no means match up to Ineos’s roster but it’s a great group with fantastic intentions. I’d much rather be in this position than going in as a clear race favourite like I’ve been previously.”
Froome won so much with Team Sky/Ineos but it always looked like a cold-blooded marriage of convenience. There seemed to be no deep affection between Froome and Dave Brailsford. “I wouldn’t say that’s necessarily accurate,” Froome counters. “We’ve always had our ups and downs but we got on over the years and I have a huge respect for him as a manager and what he’s created with Team Sky and Ineos. We still exchange messages every now and then.”
He was much closer to Nicolas Portal, his sporting director at Sky/ Ineos. Did Portal’s tragic death, aged 40, influence Froome’s decision to leave? “That was part of it. Nico had been part of every single grand tour bar one for me so not having him around changed the prospect of continuing with Ineos.
“It was such a huge loss for the team and everyone who knew Nico. He was an incredible guy in a very understated way. When it seemed as if the odds were overwhelming Nico would always be the voice of calm. He would be that extra rider in my ear even when I didn’t have teammates around me.”
Has Froome followed the case of Richard Freeman – the doctor who has been charged on two anti-doping counts relating to his work with Sky? “I see the headlines but not really, no. I’m not that interested in it.”
Froome might have had limited dealings with Freeman but surely the case leaves a heavy cloud over Sky’s past achievements? “I don’t know enough about the specifics of the case to comment. Are these questions in connection to Team Sky or British Cycling? I don’t know the answer so I don’t think it’s fair for me to comment on his case specifically. I don’t know the particulars.”
When I first interviewed Froome in 2013 he suggested cycling’s omertà had been broken and the sport was cleaner than it had been for decades. Eight years later and, with the Freeman case rumbling on, does he still believe this? “Very much so. I feel the sport has continued to lead the way in policing anti-doping. Lots of sports are implementing similar measures.
“Many people don’t understand the intricacies and how tight the policing is now in cycling. We needed to get credibility back and I feel we’ve turned the corner in that respect.”
Froome admits he was hurt badly by allegations against him after he tested positive for salbutamol at the Vuelta in September 2017. It took nine months for him to be cleared by cycling’s governing body, the UCI, and by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which accepted Froome and Team Sky had proved the finding fell within the expected range of variation consistent with him taking salbutamol for his longstanding asthma.
“It certainly was one of the most testing times of my career – having my credibility questioned like that when I hadn’t done anything wrong and my whole career I’ve been a huge advocate of clean cycling. That was an extremely tough period but I’m glad we finally got the truth out … I know what I’m doing. If other people believe otherwise, that’s up to them.”
Has Froome changed much as a person with all the success and scrutiny, the glory and adversity? “The last decade has given me more perspective on life. I’ve grown a thicker skin going through the ordeals of the last few years. I hope I’m coming to an end of it now because it feels like an exciting time. It’s a new start with new motivations for me.”
I have huge respect for Dave Brailsford and what he’s created with Ineos. We still keep in touch