The paper is concerned with the analytical description of a resistance mechanism, not considered in previous models, by which the hoops contribute to the shear capacity of RC columns with circular cross sections. The difference from previous approaches consists in observing that, because of deformation, the hoops change their original shape and, as a consequence, their slope does not match anymore the original one in the neighborhood of a crack. The model involves two parameters only, namely the crack inclination and the hoop strain in the neighborhood of a crack. A closed-form analytical formulation to correlate the average value of the crack width and the hoop strain is also provided. Results obtained using the proposed model have been compared with experimental data, and a satisfactory agreement is found.