"It allows you to get more aero" - Johan Bruyneel on why Jonas Vingegaard's extremely small cranks may benefit time-trial performances

Cycling is a sport where in recent years there has been an enormous revolution when it comes to training performance, nutrition and aerodynamics. All this allows the riders to perform at an ever-increasing level, and this winter Team Visma | Lease a Bike extensively worked on a 'revolution' in the time-trial bikes for it's riders. Johan Bruyneel discusses his thoughts on the now famous 150mm cranks of Jonas Vingegaard.

This was spotted at the Volta ao Algarve time-trial, where the Danish rider's bike was completely different than what he had been on last year. Vingegaard was already a brilliant time-trialist, but against an unbeatable Tadej Pogacar, every detail matters and Visma not only began using a very different saddle on his and Wout van Aert's bike, but also severely shortened the length of the former Tour de France winner's cranks.

"Jonas Vingegaard's cranks... Tadej Pogacar comes into the 2024 season with radically shorter cranks, 165 milimeters. I think Vingegaard was on slightly longer ones, and instead of matching him, they jumped to 150 milimeter cranks," Spencer Martin said in 'The Move' podcast. "What were your thoughts when you heard this? I think they're too small in my opinion".

Johan Bruyneel commented, pointing out that obviously this wasn't first tested in Portugal, but was a project during the winter and the team already knew it could work well. "He did win the time-trial and won the overall, so they worked for him. The thing is... I heard in the off-season somebody who said Visma is working on very short cranks 150 with SRAM. 'I said wow 150 that's really short'. Back in the days it was 172.5, 175... Riders who were shorter were using 170 cranks... 165 Pogacar was kind of, I won't say a revolution but it was not usual. But man 150 is 2 centimeters shorter than the shortest cranks we were used to".

During the road stages it does not seem to be the case, but against the clock this detail seemed to have contributed towards a brilliant performance that earned the Dane the stage and GC win - whilst both João Almeida and Primoz Roglic struggled quite a lot.

On the why this change has been made, the Belgian pundit has one clear point in mind that may have been decisive: "...I think there's two things to consider: Time-trial bikes where it kind of makes sense because it allows you to get more aero, because obviously your knees and your upper leg don't come as high so you can bend over better. Do you lose power? I would say with my own way of thinking yes, but apparently it's not the case".