In the world of time trial helmets, things have been getting weird for a couple of years now. But as of today, you can forget the Specialized TT5 and its accompanying 'head sock,' and you can forget the Sweet Protection Redeemer 2Vi which broke cover with Uno X last season.
They both had a reputation for looking a little bit, well, mad, but thanks to Giro, there's now a whole other league.
At the start of Tirreno Adriatico, the Giro-sponsored Visma-Lease a Bike team have unveiled the brand's latest model, complete with an enormous visor, massive protruding leading edge and wide wings at the rear.
Like the other wild helmets of late, it is bulbous in its shape and size, but the defining feature is undoubtedly the extreme protruding leading edge, which extends upward from the rider by a good 20cm, perhaps even more.
Covering the entire frontal face is a gigantic visor. We've seen images of this visor in both a tinted and clear finish, and can confirm it is removable. It wraps around the side of the helmet, no doubt increasing the peripheral vision of the rider, but perhaps more pertinently is that it continues upward right to the front of the leading 'point'. Given the ongoing discussion about riders' time trial positions reducing their ability to actually see the road ahead of them, this could well be a positive thing for safety, and it's good to see brands chasing more than just more aero.
The top-down view shows a totally smooth leading edge, save for a small black wedge shape across the top. It's unclear what the purpose of this is, or whether it can be removed for airflow.
It also shows a total width at the trailing edge that is about the same as the rider's shoulders - Attila Valter's, in this case.
An increased overall size is becoming common in time trial helmets as aerodynamicists look to push air off the smooth leading edge and around the rider's not-very-aerodynamic shoulders.
The first to toy with this type of wild design was POC, whose Tempor helmet was first unveiled way back in 2012 ahead of the London Olympics. It fell out of favour very quickly, before gaining popularity among time triallists as the understanding of aerodynamics became more widespread.
Over the past few years, that understanding has seemingly made its way back to engineers and designers, and the popularity has helped them create wilder designs to cheat the wind.
At the 2022 Tour de France, Specialized unveiled the TT5, complete with internal 'headsock' which smoothed out the rider's faces. Notoriously unusual - some might say ugly - in its design, is garnered plenty of publicity for the brand, and for the big helmet movement. On the same day, Filippo Ganna rocked up with Kask's Bambino Pro, complete with an unusual lens deflector that helped further to push air around the rider's shoulders and body.
Soon after, Sweet Protection, working in conjunction with the Uno-X Pro Cycling team, unveiled the Redeemer 2Vi to a similar amount of uproar and attention. We questioned if that was "the wildest one yet," and if it was, we're pretty confident this new Giro helmet has usurped it.
Quite frankly, it has left the team here in the Cyclingnews office speechless, with one colleague likening it's tall frontal face to a "double-decker London bus," - probably not the aero accolade Giro was going for.
Regardless of our jestful opinion, Visma-Lease A Bike are notorious for testing every piece of equipment they use, and Jonas Vingegaard and company wouldn't be using it in today's opening time trial at the Italian week-long stage race if they weren't sure of its aero credentials.
