Wout van Aert says it should take time to get used to his new bike set-up, which can see him swap from Shimano to a Sram 1x groupset in the midst of his cyclocross marketing campaign as a part of a serious gear change by his Jumbo-Visma crew.
Whereas the cyclocross season straddles the winter and the brand new 12 months, sponsor contracts run from January 1 and Jumbo-Visma have revealed a host of recent gear suppliers.
After an extended affiliation with Shimano, the Dutch crew are switching to Sram groupsets in 2023 and whereas the highway riders could have time to familiarize yourself with the brand new set-up, Van Aert has to make the swap on January 3 on the X20 Trofee race in Herentals.
Having used his acquainted Shimano race set-up simply 4 days in the past, Van Aert will race on Tuesday along with his Cervélo R5-CX bike kitted out with SRAM’s top-level groupset, which contains a 1x gearing system that makes use of only one entrance chainring.
Whereas he will not must shift up entrance anymore, altering between gears on the rear cassette would require him to regulate to completely different instructions on the levers.
“It takes some getting used to,” Van Aert informed Belgian broadcaster Sporza.
“Usually I journey on auto-pilot. So it will possibly definitely occur that I shift wrongly in Herentals. However I’ll quickly get used to that new shifting system.”
Van Aert additionally identified that he used Sram on the Verandas Willems-Crelan crew earlier than he joined Jumbo-Visma in 2019.
“I nonetheless know the system, so the sensation is again for me in a short time. The adjustment is harder for the mechanics than for the riders, he mentioned. “It is only a little bit of a disgrace that you simply now have to vary from one ‘cross to a different, however that is not that troublesome in itself both.”
Jumbo-Visma’s head of efficiency, Mathieu Heijboer, claimed that the brand new gearing system represented a big benefit.
“You save weight as a result of there is just one chainring, you’ve got much less likelihood of the chain falling off, and no extra mud can take maintain between the 2 rings,” he informed Nieuwsblad.
“In precept, you’ve got twice as many gears with two entrance chainrings, however the toothing is bigger with the rear cassettes from Sram. They’ve a cassette that may go from 10 to twenty-eight, 30 and even 33. Actually, the ten as an possibility is new to us, which opens up the potential for choosing even better resistance in some races.”
The brand new groupset additionally options Sram’s disc brakes, whereas Van Aert will even be switching wheels, from Shimano’s Dura-Ace mannequin to the top-level providing from Reserve, a model that falls below the identical dad or mum firm as Cervélo; PON Holdings. The Belgian champion will probably be sticking along with his acquainted Vittoria/Dugast tyres.
On the highway, the top of the Shimano deal additionally means new sneakers and pedals, with Jumbo-Visma now utilizing Nimbl sneakers and Wahoo Speedplay pedals. Neither Nimbl makes an off-road shoe, nor Wahoo an off-road Speedplay pedal, so it stays unconfirmed what the Belgian will use for Tuesday’s race.
Regardless of the time wanted to regulate, there’s room for optimism for Van Aert after his new teammate, Fem van Empel, gained the GP Sven Nys on her New 12 months’s Day debut for Jumbo-Visma after transferring from the Shimano-sponsored Pauwels Sauzen crew.