With the brand new yr now formally upon us, groups’ contracts with their sponsors have formally transitioned into a brand new interval. For lots of groups which means new offers with new sponsors, and January 1st is prime time for a social media publish asserting their arrival and getting a headstart on selling the brand new “greatest [insert product] I’ve ever used”.Â
Ever the consummate skilled, Filippo Ganna duly adopted swimsuit, asserting the “bike and jersey” that his Ineos Grenadiers staff will likely be utilizing in 2024. The bike, his Pinarello Dogma F, is unchanged from final yr albeit with a brand new lick of paint. The jersey, and the remainder of his clothes for that matter, is a reiteration of the just lately introduced swap from Bioracer to Gobik, full with a minor change in design.Â
Nevertheless, it was Ganna’s Kask helmet that caught our consideration. Notably absent from the caption, Ganna and some of his teammates are sporting what seems to be a brand new aero helmet from the Italian model, full with an EPS shell that continues down over the skin of the ears.Â
We suspect this may occasionally have been the true motivation for the publish, and the “bike and jersey” context was all only a ruse. There may be completely no concerted effort to hide the brand new helmet within the publish. In reality, the alternative seems extra true because it options in each single photograph, from nearly each angle conceivable.
The helmet’s largest speaking level needs to be the over-ear design of the helmet’s shell. Just about each fashionable highway helmet incorporates a cut-out that sees the decrease line of the helmet journey up and over the ear, whereas time trial helmets such because the Kask Bambino nearly all the time come down and canopy the ears.Â
The brand new helmet has adopted a midway strategy, bringing the shell of the helmet right down to cowl simply the tops of the ears in a design that’s paying homage to a 1986 Citroen CX.Â
It is a straightforward leap to make to imagine that the motivations for this transfer are aerodynamics, ears aren’t precisely an aerodynamic form, so guiding the air round them can feasibly see a profit. There may even be advantages in decreased airflow noise for the wearer.Â
Given the vent positioning on the entrance and their likeness to the Kask Utopia helmet, we would speculate that this can be a alternative for that. The Utopia was initially launched in 2018 – six years in the past – however noticed a minor replace in Might final yr with the launch of the Utopia Y. That replace merely comprised a number of inner adjustments reminiscent of a brand new padding system and OctoFit+ retention.Â
We will solely guess what internals this helmet makes use of, as that is the one angle not proven in Ganna’s photographs, however you possibly can see a WG11 brand printed on the rear quarter. WG11 stands for Working Group 11 and refers back to the helmet testing process that Kask adheres to over and above the trade normal requirement.
We will additionally solely speculate as to the worth of the brand new helmet. Kask shocked us final yr with the launch of one of the crucial costly helmets available on the market, the £325.00 Elemento which boasted Fluid Carbon 12 carbon fibre plates and 3D printed padding extra generally discovered on saddles. No less than visually, it would not look as if the brand new aero helmet makes use of carbon fibre plates, however we will not rule that out solely with out seeing it up shut. We can also’t rule out the chance that it makes use of 3D-printed padding.Â
