Daniela Ryf stormed to a big win at the 2015 Challenge Dubai, and during the bike segment she was wearing very unique ballet slipper looking cycling shoes. They were very minimalistic, but there was more than just this look that grabbed out interest. The cleat mounting on this shoe is in the center of the sole and there is a school of thought along those lines.

The shoes were crafted and designed by Götz Heine of biomac in Germany and Daniela Ryf is not the first pro to have asked Götz Heine to make custom shoes. Paula Newby-Fraser and Daniela Riesler are among those who have been riding with mid-sole mounted cleats. The Erlkönin model featured just below however is brand new, and only Ryf has a pair of those.

The image below shows Daniela in action during the 2015 Challenge Dubai and the distinctive look is very apparent.

Earlier in the morning we grabbed a few pics as Ryf warmed up for the swim.

Ryf uses a Specialized insole, but the big S brand has nothing to do with the manufacturing or design of the Erlkönig.

We reached out to Heine in Germany to tell us more about what we noticed, and he kindly obliged.

"Its a new version of our cycling shoes due to come later in the year. It is fully made of carbon and allows its owner to host the cleats either traditional of in our patented mid foot position we call bio-mxc². The sole is patented and takes the burden off stabilizing the rider's foot with calves. Saying this its obvious that this helps for the running.Prof. Carl Paton from Hawkes Bay, NZL has examined this effect thoroughly. The sole has been on Paula Newby-Fraser's feet when she celebrated her fabulous comeback with 39 years of age at IRONMAN California" said Götz Heine to slowtwitch. "Since then we've been busy to improve some features on the shoe such as weight, which is now down to less than 150 grams per shoe; ventilation and stack height which is less than 4mmm. The setup allows Daniela to sit lower on her bike, take more advantage of her down stroke, reducing upstroke zone decisively and let her start the run without the detrimental pain many triathletes suffer from when hitting the road with their running shoes after a grueling bike split."

The standard Y3 model featured below starts a Euro 490,- with custom shoes obviously more and people can currently expect a 4 week wait period to get a hold of shoes from biomac.