Jonas Vingegaard reportedly following in Tadej Pogacar's example: "His cranks have been filed down and repainted so that you can't read anything on them"

Team Visma | Lease a Bike was contemplating the use of shortened cranks by their riders, but after Wout Van Aert already tested the new setup this winter, it now seems like the Dutch team finally gave in to the temptation and will follow the example set by world champion Tadej Pogacar.

"Copying has always been a thing," Richard Plugge tells Het Laatste Nieuws. "There is nothing wrong with good stealing."

"As a novice team manager, I watched Shayne Bannan's Orica GreenEdge a lot in 2014. After that, Team Sky and INEOS were the examples. We are aware that UAE Team Emirates became number one last year because they copied things from us cleverly, just as we in turn watched them carefully."

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You won't notice it on the first sight, but according to the Visma boss, these shorter cranks should close the gap that opened up between his team and UAE Team Emirates - XRG. "We saw that Pogacar and other riders from Team UAE were racing with shorter cranks. We were also investigating that option, but they were the first to dare to implement it, and apparently it works."

Jonas Vingegaard

Team Visma | Lease a Bike doesn't want to give too much information, but Het Laatste Nieuws writes that 27 of the 29 riders have switched to shorter cranks. The newspaper writes that it is possible to read how long cranks all riders are riding with on their bikes, based on the layouts of specific models. Except for one: Jonas Vingegaard.

Het Laatste Nieuws writes: "His cranks have been filed down and repainted so that you can't read anything on them. In the peloton, it is whispered that Vingegaard has gone even lower than 160 millimeters, which is extreme. His cranks should even be specially developed by the manufacturer."

Soudal - Quick-Step sports director told Het Laatste Nieuws that the big change in crank setups is quite surprising to him, highlighting that it used to be mostly a climbers' thing: "It surprises me that big bears like Van Aert ride with shorter cranks, it seems to me mainly something for climbers."

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