A heavier but cooler new version of the Met Trenta has been hiding in plain sight at the Tour de France - Tadej Pogačar is wearing it to combat the extreme heat in the mountains

Since joining the ranks of UAE Team Emirates in 2019, Tadej Pogačar has been wearing a Met helmet in various guises. His favourite lid in the range is the Met Trenta – currently one of the best road bike helmets and known for its impressive ventilation properties and rotational impact safety. Met even created a special Tadej Pogačar-edition Trenta 3K Carbon last year, complete with several special graphics and wording cues that nod to his hair sticking out from the ventilation ports.

We spotted what appears to be a completely new Met Trenta Carbon Mips on the head of Pogačar, which we believe he has been wearing since at least stage 6. We put it to Met that we'd spotted it, and they were happy to confirm that whilst it shares a lot of its DNA and design blueprint with the current/outgoing Trenta, there are several changes that are more significant than meets the eye.

While the current Trenta is built around ventilation, utilising 19 vents for cooling, it's never been touted for its aerodynamic properties. The new Trenta appears to retain the same ventilation profiling, particularly around the front, but there's more solid surfacing around the flanks to aid in aerodynamics.

The most notable change is just above the brow/crown area, where a new inlet structure forms part of an all-new carbon-fibre helmet cage, acting as a scoop to distribute air more evenly across the head before being sucked out the back by two pronounced exhaust ports on the upper rear section.

A significant factor for Met is rider safety and protection, and the company has made notable strides in developing some of the safest cycling helmets currently available. Both the Met Rivale Mips and current Trenta Mips boast 5-star ratings from Virginia Tech and presumably, the new Trenta Mips will aim to build on this with rider safety being high on their list of priorities.

According to Ulysse Daessle, Met Media & PR manager, the focus in developing the new Trenta hinged around improving its ventilation and making it even safer than before, while optimising aerodynamics to complement these two attributes.

"The new Met Trenta Mips weighs a bit more than the current Trenta, but weight wasn't the goal with the new helmet. We wanted to create a helmet that was more ventilated with a new carbon-fibre cage and also a helmet that could withstand greater energy during impacts."

"The main attribute is ventilation – it's really amazing and everything was tested and developed in our wind tunnel with feedback from Tadej [Pogačar]."

Asked about when we can expect it, Met couldn't confirm an exact launch date just yet, but hinted that we might see the new Trenta Mips in the last quarter of 2025.