Wout Van Aert took a daring and innovative decision to ride the 2024 Paris Olympics time trial with double disc wheels and was rewarded with a bronze medal behind fellow Belgian Remco Evenepoel and Italy’s Filippo Ganna.
Riders often use double disc wheels on the track but prefer a spoked front wheel for better bike handling in the often variable conditions of time trials on the road.
Other riders had questioned Van Aert’s decision to use double disc wheels citing the risk on the corners and loss of acceleration. It seemed especially audacious on the rain-soaked Paris course, where a number of other riders crashed at speed in both the men’s and women’s time trial.
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Van Aert could perhaps use his cyclocross bike skills to take extra risks with his double disc set-up. He threw caution to the wind, followed the science and opted for a double disc set-up. It will surely inspire other riders to seek out a similar marginal gain in professional races.
“I think my set-up was super fast,” Van Aert explained in the post-race press conference, impressing even gold medalist Evenepoel, with the watts he allegedly gained.
“When we tested it in the wind tunnel, there were different wind angles and speeds, but double discs were 17 watts faster than a normal time trial wheel. That's quite a lot.”
Van Aert won the final time trial stage at the 2021 and 2022 Tour de France and was second to Ganna in both the 2020 and 2021 time trial world championships. Yet since then had focused on his Classic campaign and other goals, while his 2024 season was massively disrupted by his high-speed crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen in late March.
“I'm really proud to have a medal again,” he said.
“It feels to me a bit as a surprise, because in the last few seasons it was harder for me to compete against real specialists. I was ambitious but I thought there were at least three guys stronger than me. “This medal is a surprise but it makes me really happy to be in the mix again.”
“I often had the feeling I had too many goals to focus on and was never able to train one month fully for a time trial and to work on all the details that are necessary.
“That's why I was also not really confident going to this Olympics. My planning changed over the season after the crash. I completed the Tour but I wasn’t able to train properly on the TT bike. Yet we managed to get all the details right. Now my confidence is back.”
Van Aert spent several days in hospital and needed surgery after he fractured his collarbone, seven ribs and his sternum in the Dwars door Vlaanderen crash. He needed a month of rehabilitation before he could start simple training and make yet another comeback from injury and defeat.
“I think this is part of my character. I have moments when you don't want it anymore but then the next day you want to try it again,” he explained.
“My only talent is riding a bike. There’s just a deep desire inside myself to keep on trying and I'm especially proud of my performance. This means a lot, not only after crashing out in spring.
“The Olympics is the biggest event there is in sport. For us in cycling, it's always a bit underrated because it's just part of the season. But when you're here you start to realise that it's way bigger than all the other races you do.
“It’s especially nice for Belgium to start the first day of the Olympics with two medals. We're not a really big country, so hopefully it’s a kickstart for all the other athletes to follow us and to bring home as many medals as possible.”
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