Remco Evenepoel is proof that size doesn\u2019t always<\/em> matter.<\/p>\n Evenepoel\u2019s closest entourage revealed this week how T-Rex arms, stumpy thighs, and a compact core made the Belgian superstar an \u201caero bullet\u201d who\u2019s poised to win an historic fourth time trial title Sunday at the Montr\u00e9al world championships.<\/p>\n Standing just 1.71m (5ft 7in) tall, history would suggest Evenepoel shouldn\u2019t be one of the greatest time trialists of the era.<\/p>\n Look at recent dominators like Filippo Ganna, Fabian Cancellara, and Tony Martin \u2013 they\u2019re huge. They tower over Evenepoel by 10 to 20cm, and pack countless kilos more muscle into their hulking haunches.<\/p>\n Speaking to L\u2019Equipe<\/em> in the mini-documentary \u201cEvenepoel: Le Chrono Ma\u00eetre\u201d<\/em> [Master of the Stopwatch], Evenepoel\u2019s physiotherapist Thijs Hertsens explained how the rider turned his pint-size proportions to his advantage.<\/p>\n When folded into his characteristic tight and compact TT position,\u00a0the aero gains more than offset any power disadvantage he has on his super-sized rivals.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has a very high VO2 max and a very high lactate threshold. That makes his engine very big,\u201d Hertesens told L\u2019Equipe.<\/em> \u201cAlso what is atypical is his size, or how tall he is.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s not one of the tallest TT riders we\u2019ve seen. We\u2019ve seen in the past a lot of very good TT riders who were above 1.80m or 1.90m,\u201d Hertesens said.<\/p>\n Evenepoel\u2019s 1.71cm stature might, ironically, be just as important as his 430w FTP.<\/p>\n His limbs are naturally shorter than his contemporary rivals Ganna, Stefan K\u00fcng, and Josh Tarling \u2013 and that counts for a lot.<\/p>\n Hertsens told L\u2019Equip<\/em>e that Evenepoel\u2019s short arms \u2013 he\u2019s also said to have aero skin on his forearms, remember \u2013 allow him to tuck into one of the wildest positions in the peloton.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has quite short arms, which lets him stay close in the extensions,\u201d Hertsens said. \u201cThe triangle he makes with his hands, shoulders, and head is really small.\u201d<\/p>\n Minimizing this crucial triangle made by the helmet and hands reduces frontal area and minimizes wind resistance.<\/p>\n Short arms \u2013 and extreme mobility \u2013 help the diminutive dominator contort himself into his custom bars in a way that\u2019s impossible for his long \u2018n\u2019 limby rivals.<\/p>\n \u201cHe can almost put his head into his trunk and into his arms, and he\u2019s still able to look forward,\u201d Hertsens said. \u201cA lot of thoracic flexion, and a lot of neck extension \u2026. That\u2019s why they call him \u2018the bullet.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s really a bullet shape.\u201d<\/p>\n Even the most virulent TT hater can appreciate Evenepoel\u2019s aero position.<\/p>\n The 26-year-old\u2019s shoulders are only fractionally higher than his hips; his helmet and hands are one; his pelvis barely rocks. He truly is integrated with his blinged-out Shiv.<\/p>\n One notable thing: Evenepoel\u2019s quad-heavy cadence, with his hips centered low and relatively forward of the bottom bracket. The angle between his hips and trunk is open, and his legs stay reasonably bent through the pedal stroke.<\/p>\n This is important for two reasons \u2013 and again, something partly made possible by his stature.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat makes Remco special for sure is the length of his trunk and especially the length of his upper legs,\u201d Hertsens said. \u201cThose two factors are very important.\u201d<\/p>\n Evenepoel\u2019s saddle position and a recent shift to some oh-so-trendy short cranks [he downsized from 172.5 to 165mm] maximize power at the pedal stroke and have a surprising aero benefit.<\/p>\n \u201cHis knee passes the foot a lot [as he pedals], which allows him to use more quads, more glutes, and to push harder on the pedals,\u201d Hertsens said.<\/p>\n Dan Bigham, the aero guru working with Evenepoel at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, explained how this also reduces aerodynamic drag.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you have an extended leg versus a vertical leg, the drag difference is huge,\u201d Bigham told L\u2019Equipe<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s basically a big cylinder, so the more time you have more bent legs, on average, your drag goes down as well.\u201d<\/p>\n But Evenepoel\u2019s aero tuck isn\u2019t all genetic freakery.<\/p>\n He\u2019s had to become a master of his craft.<\/p>\n Evenepoel purposely adjusted his road and TT bike fits so his pedal stroke and hip position are similar on both. This mitigates the power loss many riders experience in the time trial position and reduces his need to \u201cacclimate\u201d his muscles to the awkward tuck.<\/p>\n Behind the scenes, Evenepoel devotes bandwidth to strength and mobility workouts that help him hold his freakish position for so long. He\u2019s had to learn the art of \u201cbelly breathing\u201d to improve lung capacity in such a cramped frontal tuck.<\/p>\n And of course, the \u201cbullet\u201d position is a constant work in progress.<\/p>\n Last autumn, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and Specialized sent Evenepoel to an underground Formula 1 testing facility filled with helium bubbles and lasers, not for aero testing, but to prepare<\/em> for future positional trickery.<\/p>\n And after that, he and Bigham spent three \u201ceight- to 10-hour days\u201d in a wind tunnel tweaking his fit to find the perfect compromise between aerodynamics and speed.<\/p>\n Ongoing time trial dominance don\u2019t come easy.<\/p>\n All those hours of testing, tweaking, and finessing paid off.<\/p>\n This year, Evenepoel hasn\u2019t lost an individual time trial he started.<\/p>\n He\u2019ll walk up to the start ramp at the time trial world championships on Sunday with the confidence of a 68 percent winning return over the past four seasons.<\/p>\n He\u2019s now won 17 of the 25 ITTs he started since January 2023, and raked in one Olympic and three world titles in the same period.<\/p>\n It feels inevitable that Evenepoel will dominate in Montr\u00e9al on Sunday.<\/p>\n With only 220m gain across a tight and twisting 39km course, the world title will go to the most aerodynamic, best-adapted rider in the pack. Ganna, K\u00fcng, and Jay Vine might be racing for second against Belgium\u2019s \u201cbullet\u201d as he shoots for a rare TT-road race double.<\/p>\n Evenepoel won\u2019t only become the first man to win a fourth consecutive world title if he\u2019s fastest Sunday afternoon in Montr\u00e9al.<\/p>\n He\u2019d also tie with Cancellara and Martin as the man with the most TT titles in history \u2013 all while being 15cm shorter than them both.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/arms-thigh-evenepoel-aero\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2287062328-scaled.jpg”] Updated September 17, 2026 05:12AM Remco Evenepoel is proof that size doesn\u2019t always matter. Evenepoel\u2019s closest entourage revealed this week how T-Rex arms, stumpy thighs, and a compact core made the Belgian superstar an \u201caero bullet\u201d who\u2019s poised to win an historic fourth time trial title Sunday at the Montr\u00e9al world championships. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2150951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2150951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150951\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2150951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2150951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2150951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Short arms, small frontal area<\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2238567095-1200x800.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Short thighs, aero pedal stroke<\/h2>\n
![\"Evenepoel](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2262094404-1200x924.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Devotion to the craft<\/h2>\n
![\"Silver](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2172967166.jpg?width=2048&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Evenepoel outstanding favorite for Montr\u00e9al time trial<\/h2>\n