Wout van Aert's Cervélo Aspero for Gravel World Championships

With the 2023 UCI Gravel World Chapionships set to pit some of the stars of the road against off-road pros, the set-up of both types of rider is an interesting part of the dynamic. How will gear choice vary? What tyres will the road pros choose versus what will the gravel pros set their bikes up with? Mountain bike or road pedals?

With Wout van Aert showing us his set-up, some of these questions are being answered.

GCN grabbed some time with Van Aert's Cervélo Aspero in Veneto ahead of the weekend's racing. Here are some of the choices he made.

Road gearing

Dan Benson

The rear on of Wout van Aert's Cervelo Aspero

The big choice that Van Aert made, and the one with literally the most moving parts to it, was his decision to run a standard road 2x SRAM setup.

While his chainrings might be slightly smaller than what he would typically run in a road race, with a 50/37 combination, those differences are small. Clearly, the Belgian is banking on a fast race and wants small jumps between gears throughout the race.

It is interesting that Van Aert is choosing to run this particular 2x road setup because his own Jumbo-Visma team has been proponents of road 1x setups. With SRAM offering a number of different 1x gravel combos, it would seem logical that he would run only one chain ring.

Yet, the race course in Italy is punchy with alternating sections of flat terrain and short steep climbs. So the range of 37-33 at the high end and 50-10 on the low, paired with short jumps between the gears, could be beneficial for the Belgian.

Dan Benson

The SRAM Red mech keeping the gears moving

Light and slick tyres

Dan Benson

While tilting the hoods in is all the rage these days, Van Aert is more classic with it, keeping things very horizontal

With Jumbo-Visma as one of the Vittoria sponsored teams, it was always going to be Vittoria for Van Aert’s worlds setup. What he has gone with are one of Vittoria’s staples: the Terrino Zero 38mm treads.

The centre track is smooth with only a couple of carved out lines to provide any sort of additional traction on the top. On the side, the tire retains its curved shape, but with honeycomb shaped treads that offer a bit of bite when a rider is taking a corner. It is the consummate 'light' tire choice for courses that contain lots of road.

Dan Benson

The Vittoria Terreno Zero specs

While Vittoria has narrower options with the zero in the 35mm option, 35mm is a very aggressive choice for any real gravel race and if we were to believe what reports from the course are saying of some rough terrain.

Mountain bike pedals

Dan Benson

The Time Pedals on Wout van Aert's gravel rig

Perhaps the strangest choice from Van Aert is his decision to opt for mountain bike pedals instead of his standard road offering.

While Van Aert is super confident on mountain bike pedals from his time racing cyclo-cross, it seems unlikely that any dismounting will be necessary. With road pedals offering more efficient power transfers, if no dismounting is needed conventional wisdom would suggest road shoes and pedals are the way to go.

Nevertheless, this still could be a comfort decision. Van Aert does enjoy a good gravel ride every now and then, and on those rides he would probably ride the mountain bike pedals. Since there is often an ever so slight difference in one's bike fit between using those two different pedal/shoe systems, keeping it simple might be better than keeping it perfectly efficient.

Bike Specification