You’d be forgiven, amongst all the drama and awe of Remco Evenepoel catching Tadej Pogačar, if you didn’t pay close attention to the tech used in the UCI Road World Championships time trials.
Yes, Evenepoel was blisteringly fast. Yes, he won his third gold medal in a row. Yes, he might be the greatest time triallist in the history of the sport – but did you notice his cutaway visor?
Evenepoel’s cutaway visor
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Don’t let the marbled gold of Evenepoel’s S-Works TT5 helmet distract you from his rather unique cutaway visor.
The Olympic champion was spotted debuting this design at the Critérium du Dauphiné this June, and it’s clearly serving him to great effect – he’s won four out of five time trials since.
According to a Specialized spokesperson, the visor is carved out in front of Evenepoel’s eyes for a simple reason: “While in the [time trial] position, the previous visor was touching his hands and wrists. With the new one he can get his head lower without touching his hands or wrists.”
The visor alone is available for purchase on the Specialized website for $449 (£330).
Pogačar’s new helmet
(Image credit: Chris Auld/SWPix)
As flagged by Cyclingspy on Instagram, Pogačar appeared to use a new MET helmet during his bid for a time trial rainbow jersey.
This lid is slightly bulkier than the brand’s Drone Wide Body II, released earlier this year, and has three large air vents in the front, one of which Pogačar managed to poke a hair tuft through.
The helmet’s design is similar to the Drone II, though, shaped like a teardrop to guide airflow over the shoulders, however this new one seems to be more flared at the sides.
What’s the insignia above the middle vent, I hear you ask. Well, that reads ‘TP’, and it’s the personal logo Pogačar uses for his own branding.
Pogačar’s ribbed baselayer
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Look closely at Pogačar’s shoulder in the photo above. Notice the ridges in the skinsuit? This ribbed design has become increasingly common over the last few years, and serves to distort the airflow over the fabric.
In Pogačar’s case, though, the ridges don’t seem to be stitched into the skinsuit; instead, they come from a tiny base layer he’s wearing across his shoulders – you can see how it protrudes a bit beyond the sleeves on his arm.
This is a quick hack to achieve the ribbed design without the need to make a whole new suit.
Reusser’s skinsuit ridges
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The elite women’s title winner Marlen Reusser, too, wore a similarly ribbed design, albeit with narrower spacing.
Unlike Pogačar’s, the ridges on the Swiss riders skinsuit were incorporated into the fabric – see how they align with the stitching of the panels – which was double layered, according to Cyclingspy.
Back in 2022, Cycling Weekly spoke to Sam Calder, the managing director of Rule 28 Clothing to understand more about skinsuit ridges. “The arm is a fairly stable shape, it’s a very unaerodynamic shape. You can’t modify the shape of any body part, so you have to play with the shape of the arm you have,” he explained.
“What these striped fabrics do is that the roughness means that the air travelling along it, the textured fabric there, distorts the flow. It trips it, makes it turbulent, and that sort of spinning vortex that it creates then infills the pocket of low pressure left behind the arm as it moves through the air.
“This ribbed fabric with the smooth over layer works pretty much exactly the same, it can just be a bit more targeted.”
A new Abus helmet
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Bigger is better seems to be the current trend in time trial helmets, and that was true for Reusser on Sunday.
The Swiss rider was one of many Movistar riders to use a new helmet from team sponsor Abus, the unreleased TimeShifter, with a large, flared visor.
Writing on its website after Reusser’s victory, the brand revealed the lid will be launched next year. According to Abus, the research and development behind it included 112 CFD simulations, 194 wind tunnel runs and 39 velodrome tests. It is described as the company’s “fastest helmet for the widest range of athletes and racing situations”.
Where’s the spaceship?
(Image credit: Chris Auld/SWPix)
On the topic of helmets, there was one which was notable by its absence in Kigali.
The Giro Aerohead II, reminiscent of a great white shark’s snout and used by WorldTour teams Visma-Lease a Bike and Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto, shocked when it first surfaced at Tirreno-Adriatico in 2024.
Since then, it has been ridden to a number of victories, notably for British fans by Zoe Bäckstedt, who won a national title and a WorldTour time trial at the Simac Ladies Tour earlier this year. Bäckstedt romped to another victory in the under-23 race in Kigali – but where was the helmet?
The Brit’s Canyon-SRAM team-mates Chloé Dygert (USA), Kasia Niewiadoma (Poland) and Antonia Niedermaier (Germany) also all switched to smaller models. It’s likely to have been a personal choice. That, or perhaps the Aerohead didn’t fit in the plane’s overhead lockers.
(Image credit: Simon Wilkinson/SWpix)
Lovers of Giro’s spaceship helmet fortunately didn’t go unsatiated in Kigali; Diane Ingabire (Rwanda), Linda Reidmann (Germany), and under-23 silver medallist Viktória Chladoňová (Slovakia, pictured above) donned it during their efforts.
Plapp’s bling chainring
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Not all tech needs to come with aerodynamic benefits. Just ask Luke Plapp, who embellished his chainring with an Australia-themed splattering of paint.
It’s not the first time Plapp has ridden with the pattern, debuting it at the Paris Olympics last year, where he crashed and ended up in hospital.
The custom chainring also bears the word ‘Plappy’ (you guessed it – the rider’s nickname) and is turning a rainbow chain. It’s a drivetrain feast of bling.
Second-hand pro bikes
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Hang on a second, I thought Egan Bernal wasn’t doing the time trial? And why’s the Colombian representing Spain?
It’s commonplace at the World Championships to see junior riders using the kit of their future teams – in this case, Spanish prodigy Benjamín Noval, who is only 16 years old, and is set to join Ineos Grenadiers in 2027.
As an advance on Noval’s contract, it seems he’s received a very special hand-me-down: Bernal’s Pinarello Bolide from last season, albeit with the bike brand’s logo painted over.
(Image credit: Simon Wilkinson/SWPix)
There was another hand-me-down on display in the women’s under-23 time trial, this time ridden by Vanette Houssou of Benin.
The 20-year-old competed on the bike of Adrien Niyonshuti, Rwanda’s most successful ever cyclist, and the only rider from the country to compete on the WorldTour. Today, Niyonshuti is the head coach of the Benin national team, and according to Africa Rising, the bike above dates back to 2011/2012, when he rode for MTN Qhubeka.
China’s ultra-wide Pardus
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One of the joys of watching the World Championships is spotting the brands and their equipment we’re not used to seeing in WorldTour races. The example that stood out most was this Pardus TT bike, ridden by China’s Jiankun Liu.
The bike is the brand’s Gomera Evo model, released last spring, and used at the Paris Olympics. As well as its deep head tube, its most notable feature is its seat stays – more like thick blades – which stand wide away from the bike to help it slice through the air.
It’s an aggressive design, one we’ve become more accustomed to seeing on the track, where wind only comes from the front. Pardus sells the Gomera as a triathlon bike.
