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 meaning new offers with new sponsors, and January 1st is prime time for a social media publish saying their arrival and getting a headstart on selling the brand new “greatest [insert product] I’ve ever used”.
Ever the consummate skilled, Filippo Ganna duly adopted swimsuit, saying the “bike and jersey” that his Ineos Grenadiers group can 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 not too long ago introduced swap from Bioracer to Gobik, full with a minor change in design.
Nonetheless, 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 surface of the ears.
We suspect this will have been the actual 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. Actually, 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 includes 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 at all times come down and canopy the ears.
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.
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 might even be advantages in lowered airflow noise for the wearer.
Given the vent positioning on the entrance and their likeness to the Kask Utopia helmet, we might speculate that it is 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 just a few inner adjustments reminiscent of a brand new padding system and OctoFit+ retention.
We are able to 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 business customary requirement.
We are able to additionally solely speculate as to the worth of the brand new helmet. Kask surprised us final yr with the launch of one of the costly helmets in the marketplace, the £325.00 Elemento which boasted Fluid Carbon 12 carbon fibre plates and 3D printed padding extra generally discovered on saddles. At the very least 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 totally with out seeing it up shut. We can also’t rule out the likelihood that it makes use of 3D-printed padding.