Dylan Groenewegen's 'beak' sunglasses miss sprint test at Tour de France

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There have been some weird and wonderful helmets in pro cycling of late in the name of aerodynamics, but on stage 3 of the 2024 Tour de France Dylan Groenewegen quickly turned the spotlight on sunglasses.

The Jayco-AlUla sprinter was sporting a black angular nose piece on his Scicon sunglasses as he lined up in Piacenza. Attempting to capture the first sprint victory of this year’s Tour was serious business but the Batman-like stylings of the glasses still caused plenty of bemusement.

There was certainly no shying away from the issue in the Australian team's daily stage video, which started with the Batman theme song and a blunt first question to Groenewegen: What’s on your face?

“Nose pieces … for the aero, so I go faster,” said Groenewegen, who also seemed bemused but not by the glasses, but rather by the amount of attention his eyewear was receiving before the start.

“I like the glasses and in sprinting you want to [be as] fast as possible and if you can change small things, then that can change a lot,” the rider added in an interview with ITV Sport.

Groenewegen could be seen sporting the distinctive glasses during the 230.9-kilometre stage 3 but he didn’t get to find out whether the addition would really help him on his way in the sprint to the line in Turin.

As the rider finished fifth on the stage won by Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) there was no sign of the eyewear with the section that covered the nose and had drawn so much attention – perhaps a little too much as it turns out.

“I needed to put it off, from the UCI," said Groenewegen by way of explanation after the stage in the team video. "That was a big surprise.”

When asked if they were a bit too aero, he added with a chuckle: “Yea I think so. They didn’t see me pedalling so they say this is not fair enough, so we'll stop these fast sunglasses.”

The details of why are unclear – Cyclingnews has requested further information from the UCI – but one thing is sure, there will be no need for the aerodynamic advantages for the sprinters on stage 4. The race is heading into the mountains so they are far more likely to be featuring at the back of the field on Tuesday rather than the front of it.