Persistent quadricep stiffness

roliver

I've had rather consistent nagging stiffness in the quadricep muscles in my right leg. No matter how much stretching or warming up I do I can feel stiff knotted fibres in the muscle that aren't present in those of the right leg. My right tibia is a bit bowed and my comfortable cleat (SPD) position has my heel turned in to the point where it just clears the chain stay.

I have been getting intermittent knee pain since the beginning of the year, which a physio had diagnosed was due to insufficient strength in my medial quadricep. I have noticed a pattern in which if my quadricep is warmed up and made to work (up the pace) the knee pain will go away. I have recently finished a loaded week long tour of Austria so I know I'm in reasonable shape.

I suspect that this stiffness could well have appeared earlier this year as a result of starting training a bit too hard at too early a stage, with insufficient warming up/stretching.

Should I be concerned about the stiff/knotted quadracep muscle? Is it something that will go away eventually with stretching? Is massage (by myself) likely to help much? What are the consequences of cycling on stiff muscles?