Trend among professional athletes: Jonas Vingegaard experiments with 150-millimetre cranks

Top riders such as Tadej Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel showed the way last season: Unusually short cranks are the current technical trend in cycling. Many riders rode the shortest possible version at 165 millimetres - cranks of 170 to 175 millimetres are normal for riders around 180 centimetres tall. Tour de France co-favourite Jonas Vingegaard is now also jumping on the trend, somewhat belatedly, and is even going one better: at the Tour of the Algarve, he rode with SRAM cranks that were only 150 millimetres long, as a short video on Instagram shows.

Vingegaard apparently relied on a custom-made crank from SRAM because the carbon crank arms of the RedAXS groupset are not available in such short lengths. The crank appears to be an inexpensive Rival crank made of solid aluminium, which has simply been shortened and fitted with a new pedal eyelet. However, the power meter and chainrings come from the luxurious Red ensemble.

Better efficiency, better aerodynamics

The main reasons given for the shorter cranks are improved pedalling efficiency and better aerodynamics by optimising the riding position. You can find more information on this in our background article:

• Background: What are the benefits of short cranks?

According to media reports, other riders on the team, including superstar Wout van Aert, have also switched to shorter cranks. However, this mostly involves more moderate steps to 160 or 165 millimetres. The rest of the season will show whether Jonas Vingegaard will stick with 150 millimetre short arms. In any case, TOUR is staying on top of the issue and will continue to report on it.