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Giro has made the most ridiculous helmet in the history of ridiculous helmets

Visma - Lease A Bike debuted the new aero TT lid and it’s spectacularly awful

Giro has made the most ridiculous helmet in the history of ridiculous helmets Photo by: Visma/Lease A Bike/Twitter
March 4, 2024
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Just when you thought aero helmets couldn’t look goofier, Giro has held everyone’s beer and said: check this out.

The past few years have seen changes in traditional aero TT helmets—the close-fitting, sleek, with a giant tail, to rounder, wider, and oftentimes sillier ones. Sure, they may be faster, but the fashion police would like to have a word.

Giro for Visma – LAB

Visma – Lease A Bike is being sponsored by Giro for 2024; the years before they wore Lazer lids. And the company that got famous on Greg LeMond’s noggin–most notably when he wore a Giro Aerohead helmet to win the 1989 TT ahead of helmetless Laurent Fignon, has certainly made a statement.

 


Jonas Vingegaard and others on the team were seen wearing the oversized helmet, which makes all the earlier bonkers helmets look, uh, less bonkers.

When helmets got goofy

In 2023, Scandinavian squad UNO – X debuted a TT helmet which looked more or less like a traditional one from the side, but from the front, looked like a mushroom in Super Mario Bros.


POC already has a ginormous and ridiculous-looking aero helmet that had a similar profile–but the helmet brand didn’t stop there. In 2024, riders on EF Education were seen wearing aero helmets–but during road races. And by aero helmets, not just non-vented, but helmets that looked more suited to time trials.

 

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Ineos – Grenadiers, famous for its history with marginal gains as both the current outfit and as its predecessor, Team Sky rolled out its own aero road racing helmet. This one had flaps that came down over the ears.

 

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Giro helmets have traditionally been some of the coolest ones over the years. Riders like LeMond, multiple world champion Chris Boardman or Abraham Olano had stunning and sleek aero helmets. The same can be said for Lance Armstrong.


And their road helmets have always been both cool, and fast looking. There has undoubtedly been lots of R and D with this latest helmet–which is unreleased and doesn’t have a name quite yet. But still, it looks god awful. Please ban it UCI. Please. On behalf of cycling fans, get rid of this monstrosity.


In fact, go ahead and ban TT helmets in road races too. The trend may have come from endurance track racers, who began wearing actual TT helmets during the points or elimination races. With faster and faster bikes, aero gear and equipment, there is a trend by riders to try and squeeze every watt out of every savings. But enough is enough. I’m not saying bring back hairnets, but in the name of all that’s decent, something has to change.