I don't think anyone pegged his success to the cranks. I think it's the opposite, he's just shown the world they're a valid option...
Short Crank Curious…
- Thread starter rideit
- Start date
So again it's a matter of the idiocy of measuring stuff in arbitrary, not related units and subunits, and not a matter of average height...You're right! I will say that I am 5 feet 8 57⁄64 inches now.
175cm on my passport.
How NASA Lost Its Mars Climate Orbiter From a Metric Error (simscale.com)
MOAR agile too.
It's nothing to be ashamed of... I wished I was shorter my entire childhood due to my two best mates being midgets and getting away with everything despite both being almost a year older than me. Adults tended to brush off their bad behaviour and blame the taller kid in the group.
That did have its benefits later tho. I reached my current height before I hit 15 so always got served alcohol no probs while they both got ID'd everywhere right into their late 20s. I also attracted away moar older girls.
Swings n roundabouts init?
TBF. It doesn't take a genius to understand the relationship between gearing and power.
Some fannies will undoubtedly purchase shorter cranks now they've read about them winning. In the same way everyone tried to up their average cadence climbing in the Lance era. Many still won't actually understand why.
At 6'2" with long legs I think a 175 barely fits me for XC racing and road riding. Anyone with legs even a little shorter I've told to not use 175. So for 5'9" with average legs 165 or 167.5 seems right for road. For decades I thought it was weird that my legs are in like the 98th percentile, my seat height towers above pretty much every other bike I see, but most riders use the same crank length.