On November 6, 2026, a rider on a green road bike clipped both prosthetic feet into his pedals for the first time.
He is, by his own choice, a double amputee cyclist.
He asked surgeons to take both of his legs. He is back on the bike anyway.
The road from a wheelchair to clipped in ran through two amputations and an enemy nobody planned for: sweat.
Legs That Gave More Pain Than Mobility
The rider is Tom Staniford, from Devon, England. In 2011 he won the British National Para-Cycling Circuit Race Championship.
He was born with MDP syndrome, a rare genetic mutation. He is one of only about 16 people worldwide born with it, and his body cannot keep fat beneath the skin.
For years that meant fused, warped feet and about a dozen wound infections. By his own count, he spent about 90% of three years in a wheelchair.
He wrote that he had waited about 15 years, ever since asking what the point was of legs that “seemed to deliver more pain than mobility“.
He called his choice a “voluntary double amputation of my legs to improve my quality of life and mitigate a rapidly increasing infection risk”.
Before the surgery, he wanted one last ride.
A Goodbye Ride, Then Trevor and Roger
On June 1, 2005, at 17, he was riding the back roads of Devon with a friend when a car came around a corner far too fast. He went through the windscreen.
Devon Air Ambulance airlifted him to hospital, his heart stopped twice en route, and he made a full recovery. That rescue put the charity on his list.
On April 27, 2025, about 50 people joined his Goodbye Legs Ride along the river in Exeter, Devon, raising about $20,000 (£15,000) for four charities.
On May 21, 2025, surgeons took his right leg below the knee. He had refused any fallback through or above the knee, and he was home in 6 days when 7 is typical.
“I’m getting an upgrade,” he wrote.
His wife Alice insisted the stump have a name: Trevor. A friend saw a video of it and laughed “Roger Roger” like a Star Wars droid, so the left leg had its name too.
The second surgery came on October 15, 2025, after two reschedules. He wrote that he felt “very compact- like a small japanese car”.
90 Minutes to Walk 1.2 Miles
Both prosthetic legs were fitted on May 8, 2026. On May 21, 2026, Trevor’s first “birthday”, he walked 1.2 miles (2 km) in 90 minutes, his wife alongside with the wheelchair for stops.
He is 6 ft 3 in and asked to stay that height. The prosthetists set him 3 inches shorter without telling him, and he wrote “they’ve stolen 3 inches from me!” They later gave them back.
He called his plan “Ouch to 5k” and added, “Note I have said completing not running.”
On July 11, 2026, he took it to Exeter Riverside parkrun. About 380 people turned out, and he walked last with volunteer tail walker Rob as the temperature climbed toward 84°F (29°C).
He finished in 1 hour 41 minutes, 11 of them sweat stops. “Longest I’ve walked in a single session/day in 24 years!” he wrote.
That heat was a bigger problem than it looked.
Why Sweat Became the Enemy
By his own reckoning, losing his lower legs removed 10 to 15% of the skin he cools himself with. Another 20% or so is sealed inside thick silicone, wetsuit-like liners that do not breathe.
Walking on prosthetics also burns extra energy. A 2021 review found that even people with one below-knee amputation not caused by circulation problems spend about 12% more energy walking. He has two.
So he runs hot, and the sweat has nowhere to go.
Inside the socket, sweat lets the leg twist, damages the skin, and can even let the prosthetic slip off. On the indoor trainer he sometimes stopped every 10 minutes to drain it.
An Electric Folding Bike, Then the Road Bike
On July 2, 2026, his sponsor Brompton delivered an electric G-Line folding bike. Bromptons had helped him manage his mobility for over a decade, and the e-assist let him dial his own effort while rebuilding.
His numbers that August were, in his word, rock bottom: an estimated 140 W FTP, roughly 2 W/kg once his 10 lb (4.6 kg) of prosthetics are counted.
On October 2, 2026, he posted what he called his “first proper ride on the road bike, on the road, in 18 months.”
An eye infection, flu and an insect bite on a nerve then cost him nearly three weeks in October 2026. One step was still missing.
The First Ride Clipped In
On November 6, 2026, he rode outdoors with his magnetic MagPed clipless pedals, in winter kit for the first time. He called both “quite tricky and stressful with double prosthetics.”
He listed what still tests him: clipping in on a gradient, pedaling no hands, pedaling out of the saddle, and drinking on the bike.
The last major post-amputation milestones, he wrote, are now met. “Hoping for a consistent winter,” he added.
Filmmaker Joe Norledge is making a documentary about him, planned for release in 2027.
Watch His First Ride Clipped In
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