One piece cranks in Competition?

[p38lightning]

Went past a kid on a brand news Schwinn cruser the other day and his bike had a 1 piece (American, also known as Ashtabula) crank just like my Rollfast had in 1955. Any "Tour" photos that I see from years ago always have 3 piece cottered cranks as you would probably expect in Europe. Does anyone know if one piece cranks were ever used in competition anywhere?

 

[bobbyOCR]

Went past a kid on a brand news Schwinn cruser the other day and his bike had a 1 piece (American, also known as Ashtabula) crank just like my Rollfast had in 1955. Any "Tour" photos that I see from years ago always have 3 piece cottered cranks as you would probably expect in Europe. Does anyone know if one piece cranks were ever used in competition anywhere?

I doubt it. But its possible. It is much more difficult to put double chainrings on a one piece. They also bend. If they are bent, you may as well replace the whole crankarm. I'd say cottered cranks would have been easier to construct when they were used in earlier tours compared to craptabular cranks. There is no metal-bending needed which could create points of stress in the arms. But, I would say it was because of the chainrings.