"It’s like Formula 1, very exciting" - Greg Van Avermaet enjoys the on-going hunt for marginal gains in cycling
Cycling
At the peak of the era of marginal gains, Greg Van Avermaet retired from professional cycling at the end of the 2023 season. And so the former Olympic champion, who is now active as gravel racer, missed the new trends such as growing tires and shrinking cranks. Or did he?
"I remember my first Flanders we raced on 21mm tires and then they gave us 23mm tires and we all thought, uff, that’s way too big," Van Avermaet told Velo. "Then we went from 25mm and again we thought, uff, that’s a big tire! Then we went to 28mm and 30mm. It’s quite cool to see how everything develops and evolves."
"There is such a big evolution in bicycles and equipment. Everything can be measured these days," Van Avermaet said. "Before we had our opinion or a feeling about how something might be used. Today everything is calculated and they never stop searching out for new things."
"Some things that were always done in the same way in the past have been proven not to be the fastest anymore," he told Velo. "Now it’s like Formula 1 in racing, it’s exciting to watch."
Cranks
The hot topic of last days are the ultra-narrow cranks that were first used by Tadej Poagacar in his historical 2024 season, and were subsequently picked up by (almost) whole Team Visma | Lease a Bike. For riders who can maintain high cadences of pedalling, these can help save a bit of power on longer efforts. In particular on rolling terrain.
"I never raced on such cranks during my pro career, I raced on the standard 172.5 cranks. Some bigger riders raced on 175," said Van Avermaet. However recently, he gave the new setup a go and has some words of praise too: "I think 150mm is quite small, that seems a bit too much. Shorter cranks do well and I am trying them myself now. I feel quite comfortable with them."
"Depending on your body size, if you have speed and high cadence you can benefit from shorter cranks," he said. "The only thing is if you cannot maintain a high cadence I think it would really slow you down."
"On the TT bike, the shorter crank can make it more comfortable in the position because it opens up the angle," he analyzed. "I was not convinced about that on the road bike until I’ve recently tried them. Now everyone is racing on 170mm or 165mm." And then there are the likes of Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard who push it to the extreme with cranks as short (or even shorter) as 150mm.
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