Friday Fitter Feature: Lars Toma - Toma Cycles

This week’s Friday Fitter Feature, we are travelling to the Netherlands, a place known for it’s tulip fields, windmills and endless cycling routes throughout the country. Cycling in Holland is not only part of the culture, it is a way of life. Being comfortable and performing well on the bike is definitely something most Dutch riders know all too well.

Lars Toma started his bike fitting career almost a decade ago, and has been helping numerous types of riders find their optimal position on the bike. Lars tells us about his bike fitting journey and how he got to where he is today.

Hi! My name is Lars Toma and I am a bike fitter for nearly eight years now. I also own Toma Cycles, a Specialized Concept store in the Netherlands. I started my bike fitting career working with the former Body Geometry Fit video analysis tool. I got my Body Geometry Fit Certification from Dr. Andy Pruitt, which was really a proud moment. Only two from four selected bike fitters in Holland at the time made this prestige!

After this point I started doing more and more bike fits and had my first professional rider come into my fit studio.  At that time i was still racing on the mountain and road bikes as an amateur. Saddle sores were always a thing in my career, especially if I rode my bike more than one day after another.

The wider 155mm saddles from Specialized turned out to be my savior and ! never had problems again. Then I started racing mostly cyclocross until five years ago when my first son was born. I still challenge myself once a year with a big event. An extreme long road or gravel ride, for example, or like last year’s event when I completed the 70.3 Ironman in Maastricht. 

After starting with Retül I was one of the first bike fitters in Holland to work with the system. It felt like being a pioneer because everyone was still working out how to implement the system in our fit services. It was an eye opener because it was analyzing the full movement of pedaling on the bike without setting the rider in a fixed position on the bike, like in video analysis. The bike fits became more accurate with the Retül system and customers love the system and experience of the whole fit.

2.5 years ago we started with the bike fit as a separate business and named it Toma Retül Fit Lab. The original fit studio stayed in the bike shop in Kerkrade and a new one was found in Maastricht at ChiroMotion (a center for sports/ chiropractic care).

At the moment we made some name and fame in the south of Holland working with pro athletes in Triathlon and pro Road racing. Also helping people with all kinds of sores and bike related problems. And I Still love it!!!

What is Your Favorite Thing About Retül?

My favorite things about Retül is working with high tech equipment and products to benefit pro riders and other cyclist from all disciplines with a perfect bike fit.

Check out Lars in action in his fit studio in the gallery below

Retül Admin