Gravaa bankruptcy casts shadow over Visma’s Roubaix advantage
The bankruptcy of Dutch technology company Gravaa casts a shadow over one of the most striking innovations in modern cycling. Team Visma | Lease a Bike has been using Gravaa’s adjustable tyre pressure system in recent seasons, and is now assessing what the bankruptcy means in practice. The team told Domestique that the full impact is not yet clear.
Gravaa, the developer of the so called Kinetic Air Pressure System, was declared bankrupt this week by a Dutch court. Despite years of development and visible success in the professional peloton, the company was unable to scale production and sales to a sustainable level.
What does the Kinetic Air Pressure System?
The system lets riders change tyre pressure while riding. With controls on the handlebars, they can drop pressure on cobbles for grip, comfort and control, then pump it back up on smooth roads to reduce rolling resistance. The goal is simple: stay fast across changing terrain without stopping for a wheel change or committing to one compromise pressure for the whole race.
Visma | Lease a Bike began experimenting with the technology two years ago. In 2023, riders including Christophe Laporte, Edoardo Affini and Dylan van Baarle used an early version. The verdict was mixed. The concept felt promising, but the execution was not yet refined enough to fully rely on.
Last spring the team returned to the system in the Classics after further development and testing, and it delivered its clearest proof of value when Pauline Ferrand Prévot rode to victory at Paris Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift.
The 30-year-old French rider was clear about the advantage when she spoke to Nu.nl afterwards: “It’s great that we have this system at our disposal. I think it made a big difference. I felt like I could recover more than the competition. It’s good that we benefited from this advantage today, because I expect that next year everyone will be using this system.”
Ferrand-Prévot took a very methodical approach, going sector by sector to decide when to change pressure and when to leave it alone. Across all seventeen cobbled sectors, she reduced tyre pressure to around 2.1 bar. Back on the asphalt it went up again, closer to 4 bar, particularly in the finale when she was riding alone.
When Domestique asked Team Visma | Lease a Bike about the impact of Gravaa’s bankruptcy, the team said it is still assessing the consequences and that nothing is fully clear yet. For now the focus is on understanding what this means in practice for the coming months, and what it could mean longer term if the technology is no longer supported in the same way.
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