World time trial champion Remco Evenepoel scorched to victory on the stage 4 individual time trial stage at the Critérium du Dauphiné today, the Belgian star covered the 17.4km course in a time of 20:50 to take the win by 21 seconds from Jonas Vingegaard, while Vingegaard’s American teammate Matteo Jorgenson, another powerhouse in his own right, placed third at 38 seconds. Tadej Pogačar came home in fourth, 49 seconds adrift.
Watching Evenepoel in full flight in a time trial, or road race for that matter, is a joy, his body proportions and aerodynamic position on the bike mean he looks and is frighteningly fast.
We are pretty used to seeing him in time trial mode, but today, we noticed some fresh aero tech that we hadn’t noticed before. The clock waits for no one in today’s WorldTour, and the sports stars will be looking to optimise their setups at the Dauphine ahead of the Tour de France next month.
We noticed a different skinsuit, helmet visor and chest ‘fairing’ for Evenepoel today. The Belgian may have also been using a similar skinsuit at the Tour de Romandie last month, but the helmet visor is a new one on us. Already very capable against the clock, the Belgian may be pressing his advantage before the big show in France next month.
A new time trial helmet visor
This new cutout is something we haven’t seen before (Image credit: Dario Belingheri / Staff)
First up is what appears to be a new helmet visor design for Evenepoel’s Specialized time trial helmet. We have seen a few different visor versions before, but this one has a curved section cutout around the middle of the face.
At face value, it looks counterproductive, and even prompted Cyclingnews Editor Peter Stuart to say it looks to have “all the disadvantages of obstructing view with none of the eye-protection benefits.”
We don’t know for sure what it does, but we’re sure there will be a good reason for it.
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
On the visibility front, more extreme time trial positions have resulted in a few accidents in the last few years, perhaps improved visibility in an already very aero position is welcome too.
It could be for vision, cooling purposes, or it could be to affect airflow and the way it interacts with the rest of the Belgian’s body and kit as a system overall, which brings us onto the next hack.
An unknown Castelli skinsuit
Note the trip strips on the arms and back of the Castelli skinsuit, which zips up at the back (Image credit: Dario Belingheri / Staff)
After looking at the Castelli website, there is no sign of this skinsuit, which zips up at the back. Rear placed zips have been around for decades, but you don’t see them on many skinsuits.
The skinsuit looks to have trip strips on the arms and back panels. Raised sections which affect the boundary layer of air flowing over the body, and the skinsuit, which can provide an aero gain. The back of the skinsuit also features these trips, which is something we hadn’t spotted at Romandie or seen until today’s time trial.
This doesn’t look like the Castelli San Remo S skinsuit; that model features arm trip strips, but has rear pockets and a regular zip location, so we assume this is a new pro-only or prototype issue for the world champion currently.
Lastly, the skinsuit has an open mesh material on the undersides of the arms, and cooling could be a priority here, with material that isn’t in the wind. A few brands told us last year that aerodynamic and cooling race kit is a priority in the heat.
Note the mesh material on the underside of the arms (Image credit: Dario Belingheri / Staff)
An aero chest ‘fairing’
Evenepoel placed something under the chest panel of his skinsuit which is often aerodynamically faster (Image credit: Stefano Cavasino l DPP l Shutterstock)
Our third and final aero move from today looks to be the placement of something under the skinsuit in the chest area for Evenepoel. Something we can’t say we have noticed him use before.
Now, it looks like Evenepoel has placed something here for another aero gain.
Riders have, in years gone by, placed hydration packs on their chest under their skinsuits for aero gains, but a change in UCI rules eliminated this option a few years ago. It seems this smaller, less ungainly tweak is still UCI legal, though don’t hold your breath just yet.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
