The keen-eyed may have observed a brand new POC helmet atop the heads of EF Schooling-EasyPost riders on the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia Ladies.
It sat atop Richard Carapaz’s head when he took the yellow jersey on Stage 3 of the Tour; although curiously not for his stage win on stage 17.
POC has now formally launched it because the POC Cytal Carbon, its newest aero/vented helmet which sits alongside the Procen Air aero helmet in its pro-level helmet line-up.
After we took the Procen Air to the Silverstone wind tunnel, we discovered that it was the most aero of over 20 helmets that we examined, and will save 12.8 watts over the least aero helmet within the check, which occurred to be the POC Ventral.
This new Cytal Carbon will little question exchange the Ventral within the lineup, although we’re claiming no accountability for its demise.
POC’s most ventilated helmet but
POC claims that the Cytal Carbon provides a brand new method to security, aerodynamics and air flow. The brand new helmet has been engineered particularly to advertise air flow and cooling, as POC factors out that these are important for efficiency.
As with lots of the finest aero helmet designs, the Cytal Carbon makes use of the Venturi impact to extend the pace of the airflow by the helmet and excessive of the rider’s head.
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Key to this, says POC, is a carbon ‘wing’ integrated into the helmet. It has a variable thickness and form, which POC compares to an plane’s wing. It says that this creates stress zones which improve air pace by the helmet and therefore cooling.
The structural power of the carbon aspect has additionally allowed POC to include massive air intakes – already a function of lots of POC’s helmets. This, it says, makes the Cytal Carbon the best-ventilated helmet in its vary.
POC has used a mixture of CFD modelling, wind tunnel testing and real-world testing by the professionals to show the design’s airflow credentials in addition to its aerodynamics.
Extra aero too
POC says that the brand new helmet’s aero efficiency is healthier than its earlier vented helmet designs too, significantly at larger speeds. That’s due to the big entrance openings enabled by the carbon shell, which POC says results in air flowing by the helmet, reasonably than being blocked at its entrance.
In fact, a helmet’s essential goal is to guard the rider’s head and the POC Cytal Carbon has achieved a five-star Virginia Tech security ranking. POC says that the density of the helmet’s EPS foam has been chosen to steadiness crash safety and low weight, though there’s no further safety tech corresponding to MIPS included.
With POC’s parallel sun shades line, it’s additionally integrated an ‘eyewear dock’, although our personal wind tunnel testing discovered an aerodynamic loss when docking them up entrance.
The brand new helmet goes on sale instantly at poc.com in addition to by way of bodily and on-line retailers throughout most markets, though Asia-Pacific gross sales can be later this summer time.
The three sizes accommodate head sizes from 50cm to 61 cm with a claimed weight of 250g for a dimension M.
The brand new POC Cytal Carbon helmet is out there in black solely (sorry to anybody wanting the team-only pink EF model), and is priced at $400 / £360 / €400 / AU$575.
Look out for our evaluation coming quickly on Cyclingnews.
