On a day when some of the WorldTour’s most keenly observed Grand Tour contenders were showing their early season form at Tirreno-Adriatico and Paris-Nice, it was striking that on Monday the majority of the cycling world’s attention was instead focused on what a handful of riders were wearing.
Visma-Lease a Bike showcased a hitherto unreleased Giro time trial helmet, named Aerohead II, which was so radical that the Cyclingnews tech team spent some time debating whether it was an AI-generated prank. After the initial wave of social media attention, though, more details have emerged about the highly enigmatic helmet.
"It's it's a very, very good helmet," team leader Jonas Vingegaard said after the finish. "I think it's very, very fast."
"We worked on it a lot in the last year," he added. "It's different, of course, but yeah, I mean, it's very fast. And I think that will be the future."
The helmet comes in the wake of years of dramatic time trial helmet designs, with the Specialized TT5, Sweet Protection Redeemer 2Vi, and POC Tempor all drawing attention over the last few seasons. However, Giro’s new Aerohead II has seen a far more dramatic reception.
The aesthetics no doubt have played the biggest part in this, with the tall visor marking a stark departure from any time trial helmet we have seen in the past.
Vingegaard was quick to dismiss the aesthetic criticism of the helmet, though.
"The thing in recent years, cycling has been going more, more and more away from aesthetics," Vingegaard said to Cyclingnews. "So yeah, this was just the next step. And there will be another step in the future as well."
One advantage of the Aerohead II's radical design is visibility, he said. "The visibility is better than previous helmets," Vingegaard said, arguing that with many time trial helmets, "You can't really see. But this one is like you have the whole [field of view]."
Comfort has also been an advantage with Vingegaard praising it as "more comfortable than other time trial helmets that I tried." He added, "Other ones are pushing a lot of places on the head. And this one is very comfortable."
According to Giro the helmet has seen considerable wind tunnel testing, and the name is an homage to the original Aerohead – worn by Greg Lemond in 1986 when he won the Tour de France by a slender margin of 8 seconds following a sensational final time trial performance.
Given the extensive testing, Visma-Lease a Bike were familiar with the design well before yesterday's debut. "I've seen the helmet already in December and January. And yeah, so back then I had a bit of a laugh. But yeah, when you test it, when you see how fast it is, then you won't laugh anymore."
Team staff were also quick to praise the new helmet. "It's a new way of thinking about the aerodynamics of a helmet,” said Paul Martens, the Visma-Lease a Bike equipment manager in an interview with L’Équipe. "We truly think we have found a real improvement in our system for time trials.”
Frédéric Grappe, performance director at Groupama-FDJ also weighed in on the new helmet in a discussion with L'Équipe, highlighting the role of new UCI regulations on body position in time trials on the design of the helmet.
"Today, we are in extreme positions where we almost put our heads in our hands," he said. "The Visma helmet, if you look at it in profile, limits the entry of air between the head and the hands. While preserving good vision."
Grappe went on to highlight that a helmet works as a system with a rider, but that in the right circumstances, he suggested that an aerodynamically-optimised helmet like Giro's Aerohead II could render gains of one second per kilometre.
Despite the technological developments, Vingegaard found himself 22 seconds down on GC rival Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) in the opening time trial of Tirreno-Adriatico.
"He did a very good time trial beating, beating Ganna," Vingegaard said of his rival before he addressed the challenge of losing 22 seconds at the race's opening.
"Yeah, I mean, it's true 22 seconds, and I think you did a good time trial. And we'll just have to do what we can do in the next coming days to see if we can take back the time."
The helmet is due another outing today at Paris-Nice as the entire Visma-Lease A Bike squad – including Matteo Jorgenson and stage 1 winner Olav Kooij – are set to don the Aerohead II during the stage 3 team time trial.
