Subchondral Change on the Patellar Ridge

Hi,

Nice to be here. I have a fairly specific question that I hope someone can help with.

A bit over a year ago I started suffering (right) knee pain on a long cycle ride. I've been seeing couple of physios ever since, things have been improving gradually with exercise - I can do about 40-50 miles now depending on terrain without suffering too much and I'm hoping that eventually I'll be back to doing 100+ occasionally. But even climbing stairs or getting out of a car causes slight pain (was considerably worse a year ago).

Anyway to come to the point - my NHS physio gave me the results of the MRI scan that I finally had done a few weeks ago. She was quite positive, insisting that I should be able to get back to doing indefinite distances eventually and has told me to increase my distances gradually and keep doing the exercises she's suggested.

Anyway I took away a copy of the MRI scan report; I may as well transcribe it here:

Clinical Hx: persistent pain

Normal medial meniscus. Normal articular cartilage in the medial compartment.
Normal lateral meniscus. Normal articular cartilage in the lateral compartment.

There is a 1.5 x 0.5 cm area of at least moderate cartilage thinning with subchondral change on the patellar ridge. The patellofemoral articular cartilage looks otherwise normal.

Normal cruciate and collateral ligaments. There is very minor thickening and high signal affects the medial half of the proximal 1.5cm of the patellar tendon consistent with mild tendinosis.

There is no effusion in the knee.

.. ok - so my problem is that I was so pleased by her general positivity that I didn't take the time to ask detailed questions about the report. I sort of took it away with me almost as an afterthought. And what's bothering me a bit is that comment "subchondral change on the patellar ridge". Can anyone please explain what it means, and whether there's a cause for concern there? Google hasn't been much help.

Would also be interested to hear any other observations / opinions, particularly with respect to long distance cycling.

Thanks for any help
James