Best cycling shoes: The foundation of every great ride

The connection between your feet and the pedals is so critical that if you get it right, you can do more than you ever thought possible. Get it wrong though, and no amount of perseverance will carry you through. It doesn’t matter how much time you’ve invested in training and preparation, if you start experiencing pain in your feet it can derail everything.

Cycling shoes weren’t always quite so critical. At one time it was common for bikes to use a flat pedal and regular shoes. The next innovation was to add a toe clip that allowed a regular shoe to have a better connection to a bike. Then, in the 1970s and 80s, Cinnelli and Look developed a technology paradoxically called clipless pedals. There’s no need for a toe clip anymore but you depend on the design of the shoe to anchor your feet to the pedal.