Confession: I hate road cycling shoes

​It’s out now. I hate road cycling shoes. Not riding in them – walking in them.

It’s not even down to the shoe itself. My Specialized S-Works Torch With their anatomically shaped toe box, they’re really comfortable – but at 398 euros, you’ll have to dig deep into your wallet for them. There are certainly some good road cycling shoes available that cost considerably less. The Specialized Torch 3.0 (excluding S-Works) At around 250 euros, they’re already 150 euros cheaper. The design of the shoes is reminiscent of barefoot shoes: no cramped toes, just space where there should be space. Compared to other road cycling shoes, it’s almost a relief for the feet. And yet, I rarely find a reason to wear road cycling shoes myself.

​No sooner have I dismounted than I turn into a foal just learning to get to grips with its newly discovered legs. It starts right in the stairwell: walking down the stairs from my top-floor flat in road cycling shoes, with the bike in my hand – tricky. In the mornings, there’s the added worry of waking the sleeping neighbours with the loud clack-clack. The only option is: shoes in one hand, bike in the other, and down the stairs in my socks. And even if I bow to the style police and put on white socks, they’re grey by the time I’m done.

When I’m wearing road cycling shoes, every tile looks like a potential disaster to me, and every cobbled street is the final boss. That’s why I usually opt for gravel shoes with SPD pedals: a thicker sole, better grip, less clacking, and the peace of mind to walk into a café without a care in the world.

With my road cycling shoes, on the other hand, I’ve slipped on a slippery surface more than once. If I were more flexible, I’d probably have managed a neat split last Sunday. But I’m not – so I just slipped whilst flailing about wildly. Hopefully nobody saw that. I was out cycling with a group; the mishap happened on the tiled floor of a petrol station.

I know what can happen in the worst-case scenario from a friend of mine: she slipped on wet cobblestones and hit the ground so hard that her helmet broke. Without a helmet – it’s too horrible to think about.

And yet I keep trying it again and again and put on my road cycling shoes. The larger contact area and the firmer connection between the shoe and the pedal certainly ensure better power transfer. For my level of performance, my gravel shoes are probably perfectly adequate. I’m not concerned with every single second – I just want to have a good time. Sometimes that means going all out on intervals, sometimes it’s racing, where I’m not in the mix at the front anyway and end up in the middle of the pack; whether I’m a few seconds faster or slower doesn’t matter. For me, road cycling often also means spending a long time in the saddle with a cake break, during which I want to be able to walk into the café without taking a tumble.

So that’s how it is. Most of the time I wear gravel shoes, sometimes road cycling shoes – and the moment I take that first step, I start to question my decision.

So, do you lot hate your road cycling shoes too – or am I the only one who’s nearly had a fall because of them?