Actually, Tom Ritchey started to offer his Ritchey Logic compact crank set with a 110mm spider 5 or 6 years ago. The funny think was that the first generation of this offering came with a 53 38 set of chain rings. While living in Michigan, I swapped the 38 for a 42 and was very happy. After moving to the Rockies, those came off and a 50 34 set of rings went on. I would say that Tyler and or his mechanics simply popularlized an existing concept.