Wout van Aert and some of his Visma-Lease a Bike teammates lined up at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in Giro Aerohead time trial helmets yesterday.
It appeared the team were leaving no stone unturned in their quest for maximum speed. Van Aert was active in the race, but finished off the podium in the main bunch.
The Aerohead has been in the Giro helmet range for several years and received an update ahead of Tirreno-Adriatico last year, which caused the cycling world to have something of a meltdown due to its sheer size and extreme shape.
Van Aert and his teammates have been using the older Aerohead 1.0 helmet, which uses a removable visor. It’s an older model and is technically a time trial helmet, but its user-friendly shape makes it an option for road use. It's still available on the Giro website.
Van Aert has been spotted in the helmet at a few races already this year and decided to wear it at Omloop on Saturday. He rolled out at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne the next day, however, in a regular road helmet.
Van Aert and his teammates seemed to be wearing two different versions of the helmet, with the Belgian's vented and painted in his Red Bull sponsors' livery whilst some of his teammates' yellow helmets were not. The non-vented version of the helmet is the older Aerohead Ultimate MIPS helmet, which was apparently faster but lost the side vents.
Why wear an older helmet?
Why use the technically older helmets? Well, it may not come as too much of a surprise but they are apparently just a faster option on some courses. Van Aert has shown he isn't afraid of going after every possible technical advantage, as shown by his double-disc wheel use at the Paris Olympics.
We asked Visma-Lease a Bike for comment, and the team explained that the helmets had tested faster in some scenarios, so it made sense to use them where they are a permitted option.
"We tested, and in some cases it is much faster," a spokesperson for the team said.
"It depends on the course; some ride with it, some don't. We started using them in Oman, then UAE, Algarve and now Omloop."
A course, the wind direction and even individual riders' body shapes may well dictate if the Aerohead is the fastest. One thing is for sure, if WorldTour pros can use something to make them faster, they will.
