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Unreleased POC helmet at Tour Down Under

By Josh Evans

published 10 January 2019

Could this be the new POC Octal Spin?

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Is this the new POC Octal?(Image credit: Jack Luke/Immediate Media)

The new helmet shares design similarities with POC's Ventral helmet(Image credit: Jack Luke/Immediate Media)

The rear section of the helmet looks to be identical to the Ventral(Image credit: Jack Luke/Immediate Media)

EF Pro Cycling appear to be racing with the new helmet at the Tour Down Under(Image credit: Jack Luke/Immediate Media)

The helmet has POC's blue SPIN lining(Image credit: Jack Luke/Immediate Media)

The high quantity of large vents on the helmet draws similarities with the POC Octal, which was the brand's first road cycling helmet (Image credit: Jack Luke/Immediate Media)

This article first appeared on BikeRadar.

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An unreleased POC helmet — that we suspect may be an updated SPIN-equipped version of the Octal — has been spotted at the Tour Down Under. The new model has similarities with the brand’s Ventral model and is being used by riders on the WorldTour team, EF Education First Pro Cycling.

The overall shape of the new POC helmet is almost identical to the POC Ventral, which was launched in March last year and joined an ever-increasing number of high-end, semi-aero race helmets.

The original POC Octal was first released over five years ago, and aside from introducing multiple new colour options and a MIPS version of the helmet, the essential design of the helmet hasn’t been changed.

MIPS is a helmet technology used across the industry to reduce the rotational forces that can sometimes occur in a crash. In 2017, POC developed their own technology to counter the same effects in a crash, dubbed SPIN. POC has implemented the SPIN linings in some of their models but has yet to introduce it to the current Octal.

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The new helmet has the same blue SPIN linings as seen in the current Ventral helmet.

No details have been released of the new helmet and the new model was not included at POC’s 2019 line-up at the Eurobike trade show last summer. POC has been contacted for comment.