British cyclist breaks internet with massive version of Visma's "alien helmet" as a Halloween costume: "It felt like I had a massive sail on my head"

The Visma | Lease a Bike's Giro Aerohead II time-trial helmet was mocked a lot on its debut this spring at Tirreno-Adriatico and since then it didn't take long and the aero helmet once again disappeared from races. But with Halloween around the corner, Honor Elliott found an opportunity to give one last blow to the creation.

Just ahead of the Rapha’s Muddy Hell event in Herne Hill, London, Elliott asked herself what's the scariest thing she can think of. The answer came to her quickly: "The state time trial helmets have gotten themselves into," she told Cycling Weekly.

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Together with her boyfriend, Theo Clarke, Elliott sketched out designs, prepped the papier-mâché, and mocked up a giant version of two of the world's top-tier cycling teams' aero helmets - Visma's Giro Aerohead II for Elliott and Kask special worn by INEOS for Clarke. Surprsingly, Elliott rode to a second place in the event.

"I would say it was credit to the aerodynamics, but it wasn’t," she laughed. "It felt like I was wearing a massive sail on my head. If I rode in a straight line, I could feel the wind blowing me from side to side. When I was on the velodrome, people were saying it was wobbling."

"It was so funny, because it wasn’t a windy evening, but I put the helmet on and I could hear wind. I was like, 'What are these massive gusts?' But it was only because I had this huge wind blocker on my head. In terms of dexterity of my limbs, [it was] perfect, I could ride my bike well, but obviously it did slow me down."

When Elliott revealed the helmet for the first time, lining up in it to race, "everyone was staring and pointing," she said. "I felt a little bit awkward, but I knew it was because I had a big helmet on my head. It got a lot of laughs."

"The helmets didn’t win best costume," she added. Instead, the awards went to a rider disguised as Corpse Bride, from the Tim Burton film, and another dressed as a centurion. A fan dressed in Tour de France polka dots won the prize for best spectator costume.  

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