15-year-old tyres used to win Cyclocross World Championships

Wout van Aert’s tyres had a tread taken from tyres that Michelin stopped making in 2002

Lining up on the start grid of the Cyclocross World Championships in Luxembourg yesterday, the green treads of Wout van Aert’s tyres caught the attention of the UCI’s cameraman.

In a mechanical and puncture-plagued race, Van Aert only punctured once, against his main rival Mathieu van der Poel’s four flats, the last of which put paid to his aspirations of winning.

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Paul Norman

Paul started writing for Cycling Weekly in 2015, covering cycling tech, new bikes and product testing. Since then, he’s reviewed hundreds of bikes and thousands of other pieces of cycling equipment for the magazine and the Cycling Weekly website.

He’s been cycling for a lot longer than that though and his travels by bike have taken him all around Europe and to California. He’s been riding gravel since before gravel bikes existed too, riding a cyclocross bike through the Chilterns and along the South Downs.