In the opening days of the Tour de France, there has been a slew of new tech on display.
Some of it is subtle, such as the weight weenie hacks found on Tadej Pogacar’s bike and the super-efficient bearings used by Visma-Lease a Bike. Others go the opposite direction, such as Dylan Groenewegen’s sunglasses, and the garish razzle dazzle found on the new helmets at the Intermarche-Wanty camp.
A few days prior to the start in Florence, Cyclingnews spoke to Intermarche-Wanty’s Eritrean, Biniam Girmay, as well as his South African teammate Louis Meintjes to get the lowdown on the new helmet, and they both admitted that the team had been forced to use superglue to overcome one of the rules set out by the sport’s governing body, the UCI.
The helmet comes from the German brand, Uvex. Its model name is unclear, but it is designed as a two-in-one solution to both aero and ventilation, in that it has a plastic cover that can be added or removed.
Without the cover, the helmet features a hoard of open channels, only broken by small lateral carbon fibre struts. The open space is plentiful, undoubtedly allowing ample airflow to the head. It’s a design that resembles the Specialized Prevail III, for those familiar with that.
With the cover fitted, those vents are filled, leaving just three small central vents up front, two on either flank for sunglass stowage – despite the aero penalty that can generate – and three vents towards the rear of the top of the head, adding to the four across the back.
But importantly, article 1.3.031 of the Clarification Guide of the UCI Technical Regulation states, matter-of-factly: “It is prohibited to add a detachable cover to a helmet.”
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To get around this problem, the Intermarche-Wanty team have instead brought twice as many helmets to the Tour, and on half of them, turned to superglue to fit the cover in place permanently, ensuring that the detachable cover is no longer, well, detachable, and instead just forms part of the helmet’s structure.
The other half of the helmets have been brought along without the cover, meaning that on the morning of each stage, the riders get the same choice of airy or aero that consumers will get.
As Biniam Girmay stormed to sprint victory on stage 3, he was wearing the aero-adapted version, but with the race set for the mountains on stage 4, he and his teammates will presumably be looking to take advantage of the ventilation on offer from the uncovered helmets.
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