In the opening days of the Tour de France, there was a slew of recent tech on show.
Some of it’s refined, corresponding to the load weenie hacks discovered on Tadej Pogacar’s bike and the super-efficient bearings utilized by Visma-Lease a Bike. Others go the wrong way, corresponding to Dylan Groenewegen’s sun shades, and the garish razzle dazzle discovered on the brand new helmets on the Intermarche-Wanty camp.
Just a few days previous to the beginning in Florence, Cyclingnews spoke to Intermarche-Wanty’s Eritrean, Biniam Girmay, in addition to his Spanish teammate Louis Meintjes to get the lowdown on the brand new helmet, and so they each admitted that the staff had been compelled to make use of superglue to beat one of many guidelines set out by the game’s governing physique, the UCI.
The helmet comes from the German model, Uvex. Its mannequin title is unclear, however it’s designed as a two-in-one answer to each aero and air flow, in that it has a plastic cowl that may be added or eliminated.
The cowl clips into place with these three hooks on the rear of the helmet (Image credit score: Josh Croxton)
Without the quilt, the helmet incorporates a hoard of open channels, solely damaged by small lateral carbon fibre struts. The open area is plentiful, undoubtedly permitting ample airflow to the top. It’s a design that resembles the Specialized Prevail III, for these aware of that.
With the quilt fitted, these vents are stuffed, leaving simply three small central vents up entrance, two on both flank for sunglass stowage – regardless of the aero penalty that may generate – and three vents in the direction of the rear of the highest of the top, including to the 4 throughout the again.
Without the quilt, the vents are ample and huge (Image credit score: Josh Croxton)
But importantly, article 1.3.031 of the Clarification Guide of the UCI Technical Regulation states, matter-of-factly: “It is prohibited so as to add a removable cowl to a helmet.”
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To get round this drawback, the Intermarche-Wanty staff have as an alternative introduced twice as many helmets to the Tour, and on half of them, turned to superglue to suit the quilt in place completely, making certain that the removable cowl is now not, effectively, removable, and as an alternative simply kinds a part of the helmet’s construction.
The different half of the helmets have been introduced alongside with out the quilt, that means that on the morning of every stage, the riders get the identical selection of ethereal or aero that buyers will get.
As Biniam Girmay stormed to dash victory on stage 3, he was sporting the aero-adapted model, however with the race set for the mountains on stage 4, he and his teammates will presumably be seeking to make the most of the air flow on provide from the uncovered helmets.
