Van Aert also opts for shorter cranks

A few days ago we talked about the trend among professionals to use shorter cranks to improve the biomechanical pedal stroke and be able to adopt a more aggressive position on the bike. The latest to join the short cranks trend is Wout van Aert in search of that missing point to finally be able to crown himself in the cobblestone monuments, his great pending achievement.

Wout van Aert in search of marginal gains that allow him to triumph in the classics

That Wout van Aert is obsessed with adding Flanders, Roubaix, or both to his palmares, orphaned of monuments except for the solitary Milan-San Remo he achieved in 2020, is not surprising to anyone. Last year he meticulously prepared for these races and only a serious fall in the week before De Ronde prevented us from seeing if he would have been able to beat his archrival Mathieu van der Poel.

In a quest to continue improving towards achieving that goal, during the preseason training sessions, Wout van Aert has been seen, thanks to the color code used by the cranks of the Visma-Lease a Bike bikes to identify the length of the cranks, mounting shorter cranks on his bike, going from the 172.5 mm that have been practically the standard for a cyclist of medium height for years to nothing less than 165 mm.

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All this despite the fact that last year the technicians at Visma-Lease a Bike proposed this change to the Belgian rider and Van Aert, with a position very internalized after years of pedaling, was reluctant to make such a big change.

7.5 mm of difference may seem small, but biomechanically it represents a big change that will allow Wout van Aert, on the one hand, to adopt an even more aerodynamic position than the one he already has, with the consequent power savings to maintain a certain speed.

In addition, the use of shorter cranks allows, when the leg goes up, the angle between the femur and the hip not to be so closed, so the leg can continue to exert enough leverage to use all the power of the quadriceps and glutes when stretching the leg to push the pedal down and propel the bike.

An aspect that biomechanics have been advocating for a few years now but that cycling component brands were reluctant to address, and it was difficult to find cranks under 170 from mainstream brands. However, since Tadej Pogacar made the use of shorter cranks popular among professionals and now a beloved cyclist like Wout van Aert is joining in, if the change proves successful, we will have to see if we start to see these crank lengths becoming more common in production bikes.