When Honor Elliott was tasked with making the spookiest costume she might for a Halloween cyclocross race, she requested herself a easy query. What’s the scariest factor in biking in the intervening time?
The reply got here to her rapidly: “The state time trial helmets have gotten themselves into.”
Collectively along with her boyfriend, Theo Clarke, Elliott sketched out designs, prepped the papier-mâché, and mocked up a large model of biking’s most talked-about lid: the Giro Aerohead II, sported by Visma-Lease a Bike and Canyon-Sram.
She then wore it on Saturday night as she competed at Rapha’s Muddy Hell occasion in Herne Hill, London, driving it to a powerful second place.
“I’d say it was credit score to the aerodynamics, nevertheless it wasn’t,” she laughed, talking to Biking Weekly. “It felt like I used to be carrying a large sail on my head. If I rode in a straight line, I might really feel the wind blowing me backward and forward. Once I was on the velodrome, individuals have been saying it was wobbling.
“It was so humorous, as a result of it wasn’t a windy night, however I put the helmet on and I might hear wind. I used to be like, ‘What are these large gusts?’ But it surely was solely as a result of I had this large wind blocker on my head. When it comes to dexterity of my limbs, [it was] excellent, I might experience my bike effectively, however clearly it did gradual me down.”
The thought, Elliott defined, got here to her “some time in the past”. Having dressed up as a snail and viral street rage driver Ronnie Pickering in earlier editions of the occasion, she needed one thing with extra “structural integrity” this time spherical. The helmet was the right answer.
The most recent race content material, interviews, options, opinions and professional shopping for guides, direct to your inbox!
“I wanted to provide you with an idea that was humorous and good, but additionally that may maintain up,” she mentioned. “It’s been in my mind for longer than I ought to actually admit, nevertheless it was pulled collectively within the week earlier than the race, very, final minute.”
(Picture credit score: Honor Elliott / Theo Clarke)
It took round six hours for Elliott’s boyfriend, Clarke, to make the helmet, additionally making one for himself, an outsized mock-up of the Kask equal worn by Ineos Grenadiers.
“I did the design and the idea, and he did all of the handbook labour,” Elliott mentioned. “He was doing a layer earlier than and after work every day, in his workshop. We utterly underestimated how time-consuming papier-mâché is. I’ve by no means accomplished it earlier than, so I felt a bit sorry for him. He was going to work early and coming again at eight on a regular basis.
“It’s actually simply papier-mâché round an enormous balloon. We popped the balloon, minimize it in half, after which we every had a helmet. We painted it, and it was taped to our precise helmets with velcro tape. It’s fairly easy engineering.”
When Elliott revealed the helmet for the primary time, lining up in it to race, “everybody was staring and pointing,” she mentioned. “I felt slightly bit awkward, however I knew it was as a result of I had an enormous helmet on my head. It bought plenty of laughs.”
Each newbie racers, Elliott and Clarke are additionally eager content material creators, and share movies from cyclocross and gravel occasions to their YouTube channel. The Halloween-themed Muddy Hell, held underneath darkness at London’s Herne Hill Velodrome, is one in every of their favourites to attend. “It’s enjoyable and foolish, but additionally aggressive,” Elliott mentioned, however this 12 months’s version resulted in controversy for the pair.
“The helmets didn’t win finest costume,” she added.The award, as an alternative, went to 2 different riders, each of whom left earlier than the prize giving, leaving thriller for the spectators round what their costumes entailed.
“The entire night was so intense, we didn’t actually get a lot likelihood to truly soak it in,” Elliott mentioned. “Cyclocross is so foolish, however we are able to all take it critically as athletes. However you possibly can by no means take it that critically, since you’re rolling round in mud half the time, and Muddy Hell is type of the epitome of that. It’s only a extra excessive model of that.”
Video footage from this 12 months’s occasion will likely be shared on Elliott and Clarke’s YouTube channel within the coming weeks.
