Weird time trial helmets are nothing new to professional cycling, but Visma-Lease a Bike took things to the next level with their Giro aero lid, the Aerohead 2.0.
It broke cover at Tirreno-Adriatico, which began with a 10km time trial, with images of Jonas Vingegaard and teammates wearing the new model popping up on social media. Not much was originally known about the new Giro product at all, apart from it looking rather silly.
The helmet has an enormous visor, and a large frontal protrusion that appears to help bridge the area between head and hands when they are rested on the bar extensions. Essentially, it is more slippery in the wind.
As Cycling Weekly's resident TT expert Dr Michael Hutchinson pointed out on social media, it is a solution to the problem of head-down time trialling as well - the visor is so large that a rider can keep their head firmly down for the aerodynamic benefits, while also seeing where they are going.
"From the appearance you can already see it's a whole new way of thinking about an aero helmet. We think we have found a big improvement," Paul Maertens, the head of apparel at Visma-Lease A Bike, said.
The fresh take on an aero helmet follows other models like Uno-X's Redeemer 2Vi, and the Specialized S-Works TT5 time trial helmet, complete with head sock. There has also been EF Education-EasyPost's 'duck-bill' POC Tempor TT helmets over the years, with these looking less weird the longer time has gone on.
(Image credit: Bram Berkien/Visma-Lease a Bike)
Debuting the new helmet in his first WorldTour appearance this season, Vingegaard finished in a time of 11:46 on the 10km course in Lido di Camaiore on stage one.
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While there has been much appreciation of the lengths that Giro and Visma have gone to maximise aerodynamic benefits, and deal with the problem of head-down time trialling, the new helmet has left some perplexed.
Sam Welsford, the Bora-Hansgrohe sprinter, tweeted "I quit" with an image of the helmet, while others likened it to Darth Vader's helmet, or more excitingly, a British InterCity 125 train.
At Tirreno, Bahrain-Victorious also appear to be using new Rudy Project helmets, which while an interesting design, appear more normal compared to Visma-Lease a Bike's offering.
