A few days prior to the start in Florence, Cyclingnews spoke to Intermarché-Wanty's Eritrean sprint star, Biniam Girmay, as well as his South African teammate Louis Meintjes to get the lowdown on the new helmet, and they both admitted that the team had been forced to use super glue to overcome one of the rules set out by the sport's governing body, the UCI.
The helmet comes from the German brand, Uvex. Its model name is unclear, but it is designed as a two-in-one solution to both aero and ventilation, in that it has a plastic cover that can be added or removed.
The cover clips into place with these three hooks at the rear of the helmet (Image credit: Josh Croxton)
Without the cover, the helmet features a hoard of open channels, only broken by small lateral carbon fibre struts. The open space is plentiful, undoubtedly allowing ample airflow to the head. It's a design that resembles the Specialized Prevail III, for those familiar with that.
With the cover fitted, those vents are filled, leaving just three small central vents up front, two on either flank for sunglass stowage – despite the aero penalty that can generate – and three vents towards the rear of the top of the head, adding to the four across the back.
Without the cover, the vents are ample and large (Image credit: Josh Croxton)
But importantly, article 1.3.031 of the Clarification Guide of the UCI Technical Regulation states, matter-of-factly: "It is prohibited to add a detachable cover to a helmet."
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To get around this problem, the Intermarché-Wanty team have instead brought twice as many helmets to the Tour, and on half of them, turned to superglue to fit the cover in place permanently, ensuring that the detachable cover is no longer, well, detachable, and instead just forms part of the helmet's structure.
The other half of the helmets have been brought along without the cover, meaning that on the morning of each stage, the riders get the same choice of airy or aero that consumers will get.
As Biniam Girmay stormed to sprint victory on stage 3, he was wearing the aero-adapted version, but with the race set for the mountains on stage 4, he and his teammates will presumably be looking to take advantage of the ventilation on offer from the uncovered helmets.
Josh is Associate Editor of Cyclingnews – leading our content on the best bikes, kit and the latest breaking tech stories from the pro peloton. He has been with us since the summer of 2019 and throughout that time he's covered everything from buyer's guides and deals to the latest tech news and reviews.
On the bike, Josh has been riding and racing for over 15 years. He started out racing cross country in his teens back when 26-inch wheels and triple chainsets were still mainstream, but he found favour in road racing in his early 20s, racing at a local and national level for Somerset-based Team Tor 2000. These days he rides indoors for convenience and fitness, and outdoors for fun on road, gravel, 'cross and cross-country bikes, the latter usually with his two dogs in tow.
