Wout Van Aert tries to follow Pogacar's example and secretely tests out new bike setup in attempt to imitate the Slovenian phenomenon

Tadej Pogacar has been riding it for a year and with a notable success. Now Wout Van Aert will see if it brings him any luck too. What is the "it" in question? Is it some sort of innovative doping method? Of course not (hopefully). It's shortened cranks (the rod that connects front chain ring to pedals).

It's an interesting development of situation because Van Aert's team Visma | Lease a Bike have previously claimed that they have no intention of using these short cranks... Well, it seems like Pogacar's exploits may have changed their opinion about the matter.

At Wieler Revue, they took a close look at Van Aert's cyclocross bike and noticed that Belgian has been riding around on a bike with shorter cranks in secret for a while now. It's however not very easy to notice with an untrained eye, because the difference is only 7.5 millimeters; from 172.5 millimeters to 165 millimeters. But material supplier SRAM has a different color for each crank length and so it can be deduced that Van Aert is now riding with 165 millimeter cranks.

So what is the trick behind the use of shorter cranks? The difference certainly won't show while riding up the famous cobbled climbs of Tour of Flanders, however the a clear advantage is seen when a rider needs to maintain a higher cadence for a longer period of time - something Tadej Pogacar would know a thing or two about with the amount of long solos he had pulled off in 2024...

This was also shown by a scientific study at the University of Utah in 2021. An advantage of a higher cadence is also that there is less muscle fatigue if you sit on the bike for three hours or longer. Contrary to the story about being able to pedal at a higher power for longer, this is not undisputed scientifically proven.