After much furore over the striking time-trial helmets shown off by Team Visma | Lease a Bike over the past couple of days, the UCI announced earlier today that it plans "to carry out an in-depth analysis of the regulations."
After the team time-trial on stage 3 of Paris-Nice 2024 this Tuesday, Team Visma | Lease a Bike's Performance Manager, Mathieu Heijboer responded to the UCI's announcement in conversation with AD.
“It's quite striking that this statement has now come out. It is driven by emotions and all the reactions on social media. Pranksters on the internet, I have no problem with that at all. But if the UCI has a problem with the design, they should have indicated this when the helmet was submitted for approval," says an unimpressed Heijboer.
Could they be forced to change the design with the UCI banning the new look? “That is now an option, yes," Heijboer admits sadly. "We have seen this before with a helmet from Specialized that has been used in world championships.”
They’re not wrong. UCI should have said something when Visma submitted the helmet. Making a statement/banning it now is just playing to public opinion and I’m not sure that’s a good thing.
Visma | Lease a Bike verbaasd na aankondiging UCI: "Gedreven vanuit emoties" wielerflits.nl/nieuws/visma-l… #wielrennen #koers #cycling
