An unreleased POC aero road helmet has been spotted at the 2024 Tour Down Under.
Worn by EF Education–EasyPost’s Harry Sweeny, the aero road helmet has an unconventional design, looking like a scaled-back version of the POC Procen TT helmet.
The new helmet covers the top half of the rider’s ears in a similar, but arguably more extreme, manner to the new Kask aero road helmet teased on Filippo Ganna’s Instagram.
The new POC helmet also looks set to revive the visor for aero road helmets – something that has fallen out of vogue in recent years.
A Procen-lite?
The new helmet looks very much like a road-optimised version of the brand’s recently launched Procen TT helmet.
As such, it uses a shorter tail and only covers half of the rider’s ears.
While the short tail may be less aerodynamic in a fixed position, it could enable the rider to move their head more, without the increase in drag associated with a long helmet tail sticking out in the wind.
This design probably also helps minimise weight – a key concern for all WorldTour racers.
Likewise, covering just half of the rider’s ears is potentially a compromise between aerodynamics and ventilation.
It may offer improved ventilation compared to a full time trial helmet, for example, while improving aerodynamic performance compared to POC’s previous aero road helmets, the Ventral Spin and Octal Aero.
Up top, the new aero road helmet sticks with the same trio of ventilation holes on the front of the helmet’s shell, as seen on the Procen TT. Otherwise, the helmet’s upper shell appears completely closed.
As on the Procen TT, this is likely paired with an exhaust port (i.e. an arrangement of large holes) at the rear of the helmet, with the venturi effect potentially being utilised to accelerate air through the helmet, cooling the rider’s head and improving the helmet’s aerodynamic efficiency.
Whatever the case, it appears the helmet may be too stuffy for a road race in the Australian summer because Sweeny switched to the more heavily vented POC Ventral Lite for the stage itself.
A comeback for integrated visors?
A trio of magnets on the underside of the helmet’s front edge also suggests the new POC aero road helmet is, like the Procen TT, designed to be used with an integrated visor.
Indeed, a closer look at the photographs shows a visor being stored on the back of the helmet.
Integrated visors for aero road helmets had something of a moment in the 2010s, after Giro launched its game-changing Air Attack helmet in 2012 and followed it up with the Vanquish in 2017.
Casco’s Speedster also took inspiration from one of its track-optimised designs in 2014, increasing ventilation but maintaining a large integrated visor.
Since then, though, they’ve largely fallen out of favour – perhaps because many riders simply prefer to pair helmets with their favourite pair of cycling sunglasses, rather than for performance reasons.
When will POC’s new aero road helmet be available?
As things stand, the only details we have about POC’s latest aero road helmet come from what we’ve seen at the Tour Down Under.
POC declined to offer any official details when pressed for information, but said a full launch would follow “soon”.
With designs such as the Tempor time trial helmet in its back catalogue, POC has never been shy about breaking with convention when it comes to styling, though.
Will this new aero road lid prove as fast and divisive as that iconic (or should we say ‘infamous’) helmet? Time will tell.
