A couple of days previous to the beginning in Florence, Cyclingnews spoke to Intermarche-Wanty’s Eritrean, Biniam Girmay, in addition to his South African teammate Louis Meintjes to get the lowdown on the brand new helmet, and so they each admitted that the crew 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 resolution to each aero and air flow, in that it has a plastic cowl that may be added or eliminated.
The quilt clips into place with these three hooks on the rear of the helmet (Picture credit score: Josh Croxton)
With out the duvet, 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 is a design that resembles the Specialised Prevail III, for these accustomed to that.
With the duvet 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.
With out the duvet, the vents are ample and huge (Picture credit score: Josh Croxton)
However importantly, article 1.3.031 of the Clarification Information of the UCI Technical Regulation states, matter-of-factly: “It’s prohibited so as to add a removable cowl to a helmet.”
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To get round this drawback, the Intermarche-Wanty crew have as a substitute introduced twice as many helmets to the Tour, and on half of them, turned to superglue to suit the duvet in place completely, making certain that the removable cowl is not, nicely, removable, and as a substitute simply types a part of the helmet’s construction.
The opposite half of the helmets have been introduced alongside with out the duvet, which means that on the morning of every stage, the riders get the identical selection of ethereal or aero that customers 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 trying to make the most of the air flow on provide from the uncovered helmets.
