Just when the weather got nice my knee decided to give up! I did a longish ride on Friday and I was absolutely fine during the ride but the following day the back of my right knee was really hurting. I could barely straighten my leg and it’s still painful to walk.

I’m taking anti-inflammatories and it has calmed down a bit but I’m off to Spain on Saturday and I must be able to ride! I think I need to rest it this week and hope it holds out on holiday… so swimming on the menu for a week!

I just got a new saddle and wondered if that wasn’t set up properly but I checked it all out and it’s all fine. I gather if the saddle is too far back or too high you’ll get pain at the back of the knee but this is not the case. I’m just a bit baffled why this suddenly happened and is there anything I can do to prevent it?

i have a pain at the back of my knee in damp weather. (had it now for 10yrs+)

would be interested to know what exercises i should be doing to strengthen.

good luck with yours Anu. sounds like its saddle related in your case?

I saw a physio on Tuesday and it might be "ridiculously tight hamstrings and calves" -related. ...ermmm... if that's the case it's quite easy to prevent...

The physio was a bit puzzled with my symptoms but said I may have started to compensate with some unusual muscles on the long ride when the overly tight hamstrings gave up.

So the main exercises for me was STRETCHING, which I do but obviously not enough.

Yoga - amazing stuff. Any stretch is much deeper in yoga for some reason, I can't seem to stretch my muscles that well on my own. I'm generally quite flexible from several years of martial art training in my early twenties but there are some quite surprising areas where I'm very tight and I never used to be (years of cycling have done that) and my right side is generally tighter than my left which is quite weird as well.

I have very flexible hamstrings which compensate quite a bit I think for my apallingly tight calves, glutes and piriformis. I don't tend to get real problems on the bike but do when running so started yoga to try and sort things out.

Going tonight and as I missed last week I really need it. I wondered when I started whether I would keep it up as its a bit "fluffy" and slow in comparison to what I normally do but even just a couple of weeks have helped me immensly.

Make sure you do any stretch as soon as you come off the bike on holiday, there is always the temptation just to sit down and have a cold beer at the end of the day but this won't help especially after consecutive hard days (voice of experience!)

What pedals do you use?

I suffered with some back of knee pain after SSMM last year when I'd been riding in some relatively new shoes so I don't think I'd got my (Shimano) cleats set up exactly right.

I changed to Time pedals and haven't had any trouble since.

sports massage helped me, I now go every month and the pain is not without gain, honest. Bikescooby is one if you want more info, I am converted. Hope you didn't get too much grief with it in Spain...

I get (suffer) sports massage now and it does make a huge difference. I started because I sprained my ankle running at the beginning of this year caused in part by the wrong type of running shoe for me. My calves had become unbelievably tight and were really not helping my ankle so I got an appointment to get my calves tortured. Its unbelievable how many tight muscles and knots I never knew I had. I had three sessions a fortnight apart now I'll be going once a month.

I credit the sports massage (and the correct running shoes) with allowing me to run consecutive days as my calves are pretty unknotted.

I saw a chiropractor/sports masseur while in Spain and he reckoned my knee problem might be caused by sciatic nerve being stretched and pinched due to problems in my pelvis. (my left sacroiliac joint is locked and my pelvis is twisted – I’ve been seeing a physio for about 7 weeks trying to sort this out)

So this guy was mainly working on my pelvis trying to straighten it out and It really helped, my knee was a lot better the day after. It got sore again over the last 2 rides but it’s much easier to deal with when I know it’s not tendons or something getting more and more inflamed the more I ride.

The appointments I’m able to get at the NHS physio are a bit irregular and after experiencing what this guy did in Spain, I realised the physio I’ve had so far is all right but it’s very gentle and at this rate it will probably take months to sort my pelvis out.

So I went to a different Sports Injury Clinic yesterday and had a really good assessment about what’s going on. I had 1.5 hours of intense massage, stretching, nudging etc. I feel a bit beaten up today but I’m sure it’s good for me!

The therapist also made me promise that I’ll stretch every single day!

My sacro iliac plays up every now and then. I originally started seeing my chiropractor because of a painful right sacro which he freed off easily and silently, the left sacro on the other hand was completely locked but not painful, the crack when he released it was unbelievable, its been ok ever since. It took two sessions to do that, one concetrating on one side and one on the other.

I've been doing 20 minutes yoga every night for the last week and its helping but the more I do it the more I realise how much it loosens things off and how much cycling and running then tightens me right back up again.

I think its worth paying sometimes for some proper attention as friends experience of NHS physio has been very hit and miss (mostly miss as they're not sports injury specialists).

I had another session at the Sports Injury Clinic and now I have yet another diagnosis. After going through what effect the previous session had and how the knee behaved at last weekend’s Nightrider he came to the conclusion that the problem is caused by strained soleus.

The therapist found some quite painful points when massaging the back of the knee very deeply and fully extending the knee seems to be permanently painful. He reckons the knee issue has nothing to do with my pelvis but I’m not so sure, I think there might still be a link…

But the bad news is that he advised me to stay off the bike! Blaah… I’ve only been on the bike for 8 weeks since my previous “off the bike” order which went on for almost 2 months!!! :-(

Well, at least I can go to the gym and swimming and try to prevent my fitness going into a complete free fall but who wants to be in a stinky pool when it’s so glorious outside!!

Oh no! How long for?

Oh what a shame, I feel for you :-( Don't get disheartened though, swimming and gym are really good (I've been swimming today) and when you can get on the bike again (and you will) you will be sooooo fit you will whop all our @rses lol! Good luck Anu, keep positive ...

No biking "until it's pain free" :-(

It feels slightly better today, though! :-)

Slightly better isn't pain free so don't be tempted to get back on the bike yet. Having done my fair share of stupidly training on injuries and making them worse I am usually pretty good about it these days (I say usually - still generally too keen to start back again but generally won't train through). My last few injuries have been running related but have not kept me off the bike thankfully - can't imagine the sulk I would be in if both were taken away.