"I'm not saying junior gears, but maybe 56 or 54 needs to be the limit": Chris Froome backs Wout van Aert's call to limit gearing in road races, with big chainrings blamed for "more serious crashes"

Chris Froome has expressed support for limiting the size of gears that can be used in road races, an idea that was last week thrust into the spotlight by Wout van Aert who argued it "would make cycling a lot safer" by reducing the speeds and fighting for position on descents.

Both Van Aert and Froome have suffered horrific crashes during their career and they agree that limiting gears could be a solution, the four-time Tour de France winner suggesting that ultimately there may need to be a "discussion about limiting the progression of technology in the sport to accommodate for the safety aspect".

Speaking to Gazzetta dello Sport, the veteran pro agreed with Van Aert's assessment that "limiting the number of gears would make the sport a lot safer". Froome pointed out that this would not mean everyone is suddenly riding "junior gears", just that he does not see a problem in limiting chainring size to "maybe 56 or 54".

"The speeds needed to move a 60 chainring can be above 80km/h and you're still pedalling," he said. "Maybe we need to put a limit on them. I'm not saying junior gears, but maybe 56 or 54 needs to be the limit, to keep the speeds down on the descents.

"At some point, I think we're maybe going to have to even have the discussion about limiting the progression of technology in the sport to accommodate for the safety aspect. That could be something as simple as limiting the gears we're using, for example.

"Maybe in a year or two we won't be seeing guys coming to sprint on a 60 chainring any more, which is happening at some races.

"It's a bit of a crazy problem to have because, for so many years, we've been trying to figure out ways to go faster and faster every year. We've tried to get more aerodynamic, get more power through nutrition, through training, through coaching and actually, I think all of those things are starting to work now."

> "Limiting number of gears would make cycling a lot safer," says Wout van Aert, as Belgian star shares photo of knee scars suffered in horrific Vuelta crash

The 39-year-old also questioned whether talented young riders being fast-tracked into the WorldTour and professional races is also a contributing factor.

"We're seeing an average age becoming much younger in the professional peloton which means the level of experience is actually much less as well. Maybe guys with less experience are going faster and taking more risks, that could also be a factor," he suggested.

The comments follow Van Aert's lead at the end of last week, the Visma-Lease a Bike rider first suggesting that "limiting number of gears would make cycling a lot safer".

The Belgian suffered two major crashes last season, including a horrific high-speed one at Dwars door Vlaanderen which ended his classics season. That crash, which also brought down Mads Pedersen, Biniam Girmay, and Jasper Stuyven, left Van Aert with a fractured collarbone and ribs, ruling him out of action for almost two months, and prompted the organisers to remove the Kanarieberg, and its dangerous run-in, from this year's route.

Having made his recovery, Van Aert also crashed at the Vuelta and last week shared photos of the scarring to his knee that remains.

And while Van Aert is pleased to see the notorious high-speed descent that approaches the Kanarieberg removed from this year's Dwars door Vlaanderen, he also believes limiting the size of gears that the peloton uses would help improve safety on many other descents.

"It makes for an interesting debate among the riders, just like cycling is getting faster. Limiting the number of gears would make the sport a lot safer, in my opinion," he told Sporza.

"Other riders don't think so. Yet I am convinced: if you are on that descent with a gear limit, no one can move up. Now the gears are so big that you still think about overtaking."

While 53-tooth front chainrings were long viewed as the standard within the peloton, in recent years faster speeds and the rise of increasingly aerodynamic tech have seen more and more riders opt for larger set-ups.

> All the gear? Check out the gearing choices of the pros at the Tour de France

As we noted ahead of the 2023 Tour de France, the most common chainset size in the pro peloton on normal, flatter stages is 54/40t. However, with larger chainrings viewed as more efficient, with less 'cross-chaining', some riders have opted for a 55-tooth front set-up, while at the 2023 edition of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Victor Campenaerts unveiled a monster 62-tooth chainring, taking advantage of Classified’s PowerShift rear hub.

And while he may have some interesting team bus debates with Campenaerts this season, the monster chainring-loving classics man moving to Visma-Lease a Bike, Van Aert was quick to note the Vuelta crash that ended his season in 2024 was not one of the high-speed, fighting for position crashes that he believes limiting gearing would tackle.

"Actually, the fall wasn't serious at all," he explained. "The rider in front of me misjudged the bend. He didn't take any risks during the entire descent. I just couldn't avoid him, which caused me to fall over his bike. The bad luck was that there was a rock face. It literally cut into it.

"At first I thought about the sporting loss in the Vuelta [he'd won three stages and was going to win the points classification]. But that changed when I really didn't feel well in the ambulance. And then because of the serious knee damage that was diagnosed in Belgium. If there had been grass, I would have just happily continued."

The pain and stop-start nature of 2024 means the Belgian star's big goal for 2025 is: "That I can just stay on my bike."

"So that I can ride the races that I want to participate in. Because having to watch all the big classics and appointments from the sidelines: I'm fed up with that. I dream of being able to look back on a victory in the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix in a year's time. That is definitely at the top of my list. And I also learnt from last year that I can be successful if I can ride a Grand Tour in a free way."

The discussion around safety in races has rumbled on throughout the winter, the 2024 season ending with the devastating death of Muriel Furrer at the UCI World Championships in September and, earlier in the year, André Drege at the Tour of Austria.

The aforementioned crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen and the one that left Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel, Jay Vine and others seriously injured at Itzulia Basque Country a week later also overshadowed that part of the season.

In November, Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme argued that devastating mass crashes like the one in the Basque Country in April are caused by riders "going too fast".

"Beyond the behaviour of the athletes and the work of the organisers, it is absolutely necessary to reduce speed by appropriate measures: the riders are going too fast," he told the annual general assembly of the association of race organisers.

"The faster they go, the greater the risk and the more they endanger themselves and others."

> "Slow down the bikes to save lives, it's the only solution": Cycling team boss calls for bike tech safety restrictions and asks, "Is a race at an average of 48km/h less exciting than one at 55km/h?"

The Tour director's stance drew criticism from the likes of EF Education-EasyPost manager Jonathan Vaughters, who branded the comments "absolutely infuriating" and dismissed Prudhomme as one of the sport's "fat cats who have never raced so much as a child's tricycle".

However, Vaughters' fellow team boss, Groupama-FDJ's Marc Madiot argued that slowing down the increasingly aero and fast bike tech used at the highest level is key to creating a safer environment for pros who "don't want to understand" the inherent risks they face during races.

Meanwhile, French pro Guillaume Martin, who is set to move to Madiot's Groupama-FDJ team in 2025 after five years at Cofidis, has also claimed that modern tech, and its apparent fragility, could be making the sport more dangerous.

However, unlike Van Aert and Martin, three-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar, speaking at his UAE Team Emirates training camp last month, refused to be drawn on whether rules should be introduced to slow down bikes on safety grounds, noting that, just as teams wish to keep improving, the cycling industry is reliant on selling seemingly faster and better products.

"Everybody wants to go faster all the time," the 2024 Triple Crown winner said. "The whole cycling world is developing like any other sport, breaking records every year and going faster and faster.

"Technology moves ahead, and in one way I totally understand that we cannot be stuck on a steel bike that goes 10km/h slower. Marketing doesn't go so well selling the bikes, the jersey, the helmets. Everything needs to improve."

However, despite increasing speeds, Pogačar pointed out that crashes have always been a part of cycling – and that, instead of focusing on reducing speeds, other measures can be emphasised to create a safer racing environment.

"When you go faster there is more risk, but I don't think there were no crashes a hundred years ago, or no risk even if they were going 20km/h average speed in a race and now we go almost 45," the Slovenian superstar continued.

"Organisers are trying with new barriers on the roads. In some ways they really good. Choosing the right roads, for me, is crucial. Not to go over speed bumps when it’s 70km/h per hour. Sensible finishes.

"There's also the weather protocol. It's getting used more and more, especially when there's snow or rain, or super cold, they're starting to apply it sometimes in the bigger races. It's on the riders most to be safe. Don't do stupid things in the bunch. You need to respect all the riders. It doesn't matter who it is. Respect the road and you also need to think about your abilities on the bike. Everybody is trying their best, I think."