When Andreas Seewald stormed to a solo win in the men’s XC Marathon world championships over the weekend, it was just a big day for the German endurance veteran. It was a big day for big wheels. Just days ahead of Trek lifting the curtains on its big wheel reveal, Seewald became the first rider to win a world championships title on 32″ wheels.

Seewald raced in Trentino, Italy on a prototype KTM Scarp Evo 4. The German was running a RAD program fork from Fox. Which is notable as the Singer KTM team normally races on RockShox suspension.

 

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This is arguably the biggest result yet for the big wheels. There’s been a 32″ Cape Epic stage win, a World Cup XCC podium under Alessandra Keller (though that bike largely disappeared after that weekend) and a 32/27.5″ mullet ridden at downhill world championships. But winning the rainbow jersey? That’s a major milestone.

KTM wades into future of 32″ bikes

Another milestone could come this weekend. Trek revealed its prototype XC 32″ race bike today. It will be raced this weekend by Trek Unbroken athletes at the Soldier Hollow World Cup in Utah. With riders like Evie Richards on the new, so far team-only bike, the big wheels could mark another big milestone by the end of Sunday.

We’ve spent some time on the big wheels ourselves and have thoughts. Many, many thoughts. It definitely has some significant and obvious advantages. But there’s also parts where the “little” 29″ wheels might have an advantage of their own.