Leadout Performance Clubhouse

Taking a lead on cycle sport in North Yorkshire

With 2 of the most popular National Park areas in the U.K., and a Grand Depart for the Tour de France, alongside the 2019 World Championships, you’d be forgiven for thinking that North Yorkshire already had everything that cyclists require. Don’t get me wrong, it has some of the best cycling routes in Europe – on road and trail. However, with such a vast geographical area to cover, there’s always been a slight geographic gap in accessible high-quality and performance orientated cycling studios. After all, the county is 110 miles across and mainly rural. That’s great for road cyclists, gravel grinders and mountain bikers seeking adventure; but it has frequently meant that cyclists had to travel long distances to get the very bestinformation and expertise.

Thankfully, with the opening of our new Lake retail partner, at the historic market town of Bedale on the eastern edges of the Yorkshire Dales National Park and close to the western edges of the North Yorks Moors, that geographical gap has been well and truly plugged, with Leadout Performance Centre and their all-new, state of the art cycle studio. It has a workshop area, retail space, superb café, bike-fitting studio, coaching and health care professionals all under one roof, and directly accessible to some amazing and world class rides.

A journey towards excellence

The journey towards this sporting centre of excellence has been a long and difficult one for director, Sean Dodsworth and his partner, Lisa. As an elite soldier, Sean has always been somebody who has strived to be the best. However, at aged only 29 and on the cusp of achieving his soldiering goals, this determined athlete,and serviceman was diagnosed with a life-changing condition known as Axial SpA (AS) – a form of arthritis. In effect, it causes irreversible damage to his sacroiliac joints and lower spine. As you’d imagine, that’s not something that an elite soldier or athlete can easily cope with.

Talking with Sean, he tells me that despite having ridden a Halfords dirt jump bike as a kid, his cycling exploits stopped there – at simple childhood adventures on 2-wheels. It wasn’t until this health diagnosis that cycling as a sport or fitness element entered his thoughts. When he was told that he had Axial SpA and what this meant to his long-term health, his initial reaction was to try and beat it, by first trying swimming, and then cycling, where he quickly found his forte, becoming Captain of the U.K. Army Cycling Team. The last of on his mind was to accept defeat and resign himself to a particular way of life. It’s obvious when you spend time chatting with Sean, that he always sets out to be his best version – be that as a soldier, a cyclist or a human being. He’s a thoroughly nice guy and totally determined and professional in all that he does. There are no half measures, and as the saying goes: ‘prior planning prevents poor performance”.

Riding the learning curve

And so, when a change of career was deemed necessary, cycling and the expertise he’d picked up in pursuit of maintaining his fitness and health, opened up the route towards the state of the art Lead Out Performance Centre that now sits proudly in the centre of the world-famous cycling county that is North Yorkshire. This driven and positive thinking athlete took it upon himself to gain the necessary coaching qualifications and experience, and to learn about the anatomy and physiology of the human body and how it related to cycling and sport; and, after experiencing 2 woeful bike-fitting sessions himself, he also added bike-fitting as a skill that he wanted to improve on the delivery of, too.

In his own words and matching those I’ve heard so many times from the very best bike-fitters in the world, Sean felt that the bike needed to be built around the rider, not the rider being incorrectly adapted to a poor fitting bike. It’s a message that resonates with us at Lake, and it helps us to continue to innovate and to deliver excellence in cycling shoe comfort and performance. He also wanted to help others to overcome their own obstacles, in the same way that he’d been able to. It’s a philosophy that has helped Sean and Lisa to put together a world-class team of experts at their Leadout clubhouse, and which now supplies cyclists, triathletes and runners with the world’s finest high-performance products and advice – including wrapping their feet in Lake cycling shoes.

A community clubhouse for all sports fans

The Lead Out clubhouse has quickly become a popular place for runners, triathletes and all manner of cyclists, from across a vast area of the north of England. Taking a steer from his own inspiring journey, Sean and Lisa have developed a community centre where the whole spectrum of cyclists can get the right advice and support they need; from elite riders at world tour level, to the local cycling clubs and the individual rider who simply wants to enjoy a short ride; Leadout caters for everyone, and has put together a team of experts in every area, including health care professionals, so that every aspect of a cycling and fitness lifestyle is catered for in a rich tapestry of cycling services.

Sean believes in a good team as being central to success, and he’s put together an amazing and multi-talented team at Leadout Performance; not only at the clubhouse, but also in their online services and personal coaching. Speaking with Sean, he believes that all cyclists can benefit from having such extensive services available in one place – the Leadout Clubhouse. The team consists of Dr Nic Berger, their exercise physiologist, with Sean heading up the coaching team alongside a well-respected team of coaches such as Rich Hunt, an endurance coach & Sam Kettlewell, an in-house lab technician, helping to analyse athletes to a professional level. There’s an exercise physiologist, Dr Jonathan Taylor, a leading running coach, and recent World Tour level pro rider and Lake ambassador, Harry Tanfield on their coaching team too.  

On my first visit, there were groups of runners, gravel bikers and road cyclists all heading out on their own adventures, ably led by guides and coaches from the Leadout team; following which, everyone gathered together for the social side of sport, in the excellent café that nutritionist, Lisa helps to manage – and yes, they serve amazing coffee and snacks!

Buy with confidence, based on fact, not fame

Chatting away with Sean, he takes a common sense and logical approach to delivering what the cyclist needs, whoever they are. He tells me that all too often, people buy with their eyes. Another issue he sees is that, too frequently, brands create bikes that aren’t always suitable for the average rider. As a professional bike-fitter, he and his team are left trying to correct the incorrectly sold bike, instead of being able to fit the rider to the most suitable bike in the first place – a bike created to match their own unique needs. Saddle sizing is a particular issue with clients, giving discomfort and leading to other more critical and health-related problems at times. Think about this; of all the contact points, it’s the one which can really cause some serious aggravation if you’re not sitting comfortably.  

It’s a contact point that is too frequently overlooked on purchasing a bike and yet is a vital component in the bike-fitting journey. Likewise, the feet are often overlooked, with too many people trying to buy cycling shoes without being properly measured. At Lake, we measure length, width and volume, and then look in detail at foot shape. Sean and I discuss this, agreeing that when cyclists try to use the same bike and components as a world tour rider, it won’thelp them to gain a place in the peloton. It may however give cyclists, hours, if not years of discomfort and pain, and may also lead to significant health issues. Performance ultimately comes from being comfortable on the bike – all ride long. That means having the right bike, correctly fitted and wearing the right cycling shoes for your own specific needs.

Lake at the Leadout Performance Centre

The whole range of Lake cycling shoes is available at Leadout, with Sean and the team ensuring that you find your fit and the right shoe for you, by talking with you first and measuring your feet. As Sean says, you can’t buy cycling shoes with your eyes – despite too many people attempting to do so online. Riding the same bike as Podajcar won’thelp you win the Tour de France. Wearing Lake cycling shoes may not help either, but hey, you will at least be comfortable as you ride and dream! Sean describes the Lake cycling shoe range as being a whole tapestry of sizes and styles and shapes, all interwoven and crossing over. In this way, he believes that Lake has a cycling shoe for all riders. His goal is to educate riders away from the shoe that they like to the shoe that they need.

As he says to me, ‘performance advantage comes from comfort. Add some styling and area and we also get power. Together: more comfortable and more power and a happier cyclist’. With Lake cycling shoes we aim to deliver comfort and performance in perfect harmony. When riding himself, Sean uses the Lake CX333 road cycling shoe, which he describes as a super-comfortable cycling slipper with style at standard. It provides him with everything he needs to power on through a long ride into the Dales.

If you’d like advice and guidance on improving your own cycling or triathlon journey, then visit Sean and Lisa and the team at the Lead Out Performance Centre, and ride into your own cycling adventure – with our legendary Lake comfort, performance and style built in. Then stop and enjoy great coffee and talk with like-minded people about how great the Yorkshire Dales Cycling is.