Gall about mocking helmets
“Cycling is not a beauty contest”
The battle for aerodynamic advantages seems to know no bounds. The cycling teams are causing quite a stir with new time trial helmets, Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard earns ridicule for a revolutionary model. Felix Gall rode to eighth place in the Paris-Nice team time trial with an ordinary helmet.
With a bit of weather luck, Felix Gall's 39-second gap in the team time trial at Paris-Nice on Tuesday was limited. Austria's cycling hero finished in eighth place with his Decathlon AG2R team: "If you look at where we were before, that's good progress. I am satisfied."
Großschartner colleague in yellow
The racing teams of the top favorites Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel lost many seconds on the wet roads in the finish, the UAE team with the Upper Austrian Felix Großschartner conquered the yellow jersey as the day's winner for US boy Brandon McNulty. Gall finished in 24th place, 42 seconds behind.
On Wednesday, the favorites will go to the wire for the first time in the traditional French race. Seven mountain stages await, with the finish on Mont Brouilly after a three-kilometer climb with an average gradient of 7.6 percent. "It's going to be really tough," nodded Gall.
But the results were almost a minor matter. The new time trial helmets, which the big professional racing teams used for the first time on Monday at Tirreno-Adriatico and a day later at Paris-Nice, caused a lot of excitement and ridicule.
Vingegaard as "Lord Helmet"
The Dutch team around Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard in particular attracted attention with a futuristic model. The Dane was dubbed "Lord Helmet" on social media. "When you see how fast these things look, you'll stop laughing," countered the 26-year-old cycling star.
Aesthetic is something else. But cycling is not a beauty contest. It's about what's fast and works
Rad-Held Felix Gall
Gall was also amazed by the new head protection: "Aesthetics is something else. But cycling is not a beauty contest. It's about what's fast and works." The 27-year-old is therefore planning wind tunnel tests before the Tour de France: "I'm looking for the best possible model for me."
In the meantime, the World Cycling Union has reacted to the aero arms race. They want to test the new models for compliance with the standards. "The trend in the design of time trial helmets focuses more on performance than on rider safety in the event of a crash," said the official UCI statement.
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