Erviti joins Van Aert on the madness of the developments in pro Cycling: “Downhill and on the flat, never seen such a pace!”

Wout van Aert, exasperated by the series of serious accidents that have occurred recently, is proposing a controversial initiative to reduce risks in professional Cycling. The Belgian rider is convinced that the best solution would be to “rapidly reduce the developments, because the current chainrings and sprockets offer too many options to go fast. When going downhill, you reach dizzying speeds, and this represents a danger. It would be wise to limit these developments to avoid too rapid descents or to maintain speeds of 50 kilometers per hour on the flat as if nothing had happened”.

Cycling is reaching ever higher speeds. Averages per hour continue to increase, as demonstrated at Paris-Roubaix, where the last rider recorded a higher average than Fabian Cancellara in 2010. The winner of the current edition, Mathieu van der Poel , impressed with an average of 47.802 km/h.

Imanol Erviti, sports director of the Ineos team and recently retired after 20 years of career in professional cycling, spoke in an interview with the program “El corte bueno” about the spectacular evolution of performances: “Yes, the speed never stops increasing. ‘increase. This is a development that has been especially marked over the last four or five years, and even more so since the end of Covid.”

He also emphasizes that today’s bikes are at a higher level than those of just five years ago: “The evolution of the equipment has been impressive, a lot of progress has been made. These bikes go very fast. When I ride, I feel that with the old bikes, when going downhill, I remained almost static but the speed did not stabilize, whereas with the latest models, this acceleration seems to never stop, whether going downhill or on the plate. The material really makes the difference.”

“There is no longer any fear of less good results and efforts are multiplied”

“In addition, the training and average fitness of the peloton are very high, which is reflected in the speed,” says Erviti.

Another factor contributing to this increased speed is the more combative mentality of young cyclists: “The attitude of the big riders has also improved the speed averages. They start the race 80 kilometers from the finish and there are almost no more breaks. The ‘big fish’ fight from the start”.

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It is also crucial to take into account the impact of advances in nutrition, which has made it possible to improve the energy of runners: “Food during races has made the crises of less well disappear almost completely, and runners no longer hesitate to start earlier. Efforts no longer pay off as before, which encourages faster races. There is less effort saved, we don’t think about what’s next and we give everything much sooner”.