"Three quarters of a year ago I suggested it to Wout" - Mathieu Heijboer was behind Van Aert's dual disc wheel set up at 2024 Paris Olympic Games

Wout van Aert secured himself the bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games in the individual time trial. Notably of the Belgian's efforts was the fact he used a rarely seen dual disc wheel set up. As it turns out, that idea came from the idea of his Team Visma | Lease a Bike coach Mathieu Heijboer.

"Let's be honest," begins Heijboer on the matter, in quotes collected by NOS. "Wout has already won silver twice in the time trial at the world championships. But in recent years, there have been guys who are just a bit better. We had to come up with something."

Whilst ultimately, there were again two men better than Van Aert on the day with his compatriot Remco Evenepoel taking the gold and Italy's Filippo Ganna the silver, could the dual disc wheel have played a key role in holding off the challenge of Great Britain's Joshua Tarling for bronze? Van Aert himself sure thinks so. “I was only a couple of seconds faster than Tarling. We can say that’s because of the front disc wheel. There weren’t many risks by using it. I felt comfortable, I tested it a lot and it gave me confidence,” he judged afterwards to Sporza.

"We already tested it once in 2022. Three quarters of a year ago I suggested it to Wout again. And he responded enthusiastically," Heijboer recalls of the ideas origins. "We then tested extensively in the wind tunnel at the Silverstone race circuit in England and on the Zolder cycling track. And before the Tour de France, Wout also rode it outside. In secret, because we wanted to be able to use it as a wild card. To be deployed at the right moment."

"You also need to have a lot of steering skills and Wout van Aert certainly has that," Heijboer continues. "That's why we only did this with Wout, also because he was our only rider with real medal chances. For Jonas Vingegaard in the Tour it makes much less sense, if only because he is a lot lighter and has to rely mainly on uneven time trials. Other teams will also start thinking about it now."