Cycling’s latest tech innovation? Super glue, apparently: Biniam Girmay’s Intermarché-Wanty team using glue to get around UCI rule on helmet covers at Tour de France

The Tour de France can often provide fertile ground for the latest in groundbreaking cycling technology – that is until the UCI intervenes, however, snuffing out the newest innovation before it’s even had the time to contest a sprint finish.

And after Dylan Groenewegen’s bizarre aero ‘beak’ was apparently kiboshed by the powers that be before the run-in to Turin on stage three of this year’s Tour, the rider who beat the Dutch champion that afternoon, Biniam Girmay, was sporting a helmet that just about squeezed by the governing body’s eagle-eyed enforcers – thanks to the crafty use of some super glue.

That Art Attack-inspired method was adopted by Girmay’s Intermarché-Wanty team in order to enable their riders to wear their striking new black and white Uvex helmets, which the Eritrean was sporting when he made Tour history at the end of a chaotic sprint finish on Monday afternoon.

The new Uvex helmets, the model name of which is yet to be revealed, feature a ‘two-in-one aero and ventilation solution’ – in other words, they come with a detachable plastic cover, which can be fitted when aero gains outweigh the need to stay cool.

(A.S.O./Charly Lopez)

While the normal helmet includes plenty of open channels, when the cover is fitted only three small vents at the front are visible, along with four across the back.

However, the helmet’s two-in-one design was never going to make it to the roads of the Tour, falling foul as it does of article 1.3.031 of the UCI’s technical regulations, which states that it is “prohibited to add a detachable cover to a helmet”.

That particular rule was introduced in 2012, a year after Mark Cavendish sported a then-revolutionary clear helmet cover on his way to winning the world road race championships in Copenhagen.

To navigate the UCI’s 12-year-old clampdown on helmet covers, Girmay and teammate Louis Meintjes told Cyclingnews that the team have simply brought double the number of helmets to the Tour.

Biniam Girmay and Louis Meintjes, sans helmet cover, before stage one (A.S.O./Charly Lopez)

On half of those helmets, Intermarché-Wanty used the somewhat primitive method of super glue to permanently fix the covers in place – so they’re no longer detachable and therefore comply with the UCI’s rules – offering riders the choice between the helmet’s two variations depending on the type of stage they’re about to tackle.

While Girmay was wearing the super glued aero version during his stage-winning sprint in Turin, and during today’s flat ride to Saint-Vulbas, the Eritrean opted for the airier model during Saturday’s scorchingly hot opening stage between Florence and Rimini, while his Intermarché-Wanty teammates could be seen wearing a combination of the two before yesterday’s mountainous trek to Valloire.

(ASO/Billy Ceusters)

Of course, Intermarché-Wanty’s super glue helmet loophole isn’t the first time during this Tour that attempts by riders, teams, and manufacturers to introduce some innovative new tech have been brought to a juddering halt by the UCI.

As we reported yesterday, Dylan Groenewegen revealed that he was ordered to remove the bizarre aero ‘beak’ he sported during the Tour’s third stage, won by Girmay, the nose cover on his Scicon glasses apparently attracting the attention of the sport’s governing body, who demanded that he removed it mid-stage.

> A bridge too far? Scicon prices bizarre aero 'beak' at €350, as Dylan Groenewegen reveals UCI ordered him to remove nose cover during Tour de France stage

The cycling world went into meltdown when the Dutch sprinter was spotted with a seemingly Batman-inspired addition to his glasses at the stage start in Piacenza on Monday, and unsurprisingly jokes, memes, ridicule, and silliness ensued online as fans tried to get their heads around the latest, “ridiculous” frontier in questionable aero tech.

However, by the time Groenewegen sprinted to fifth place, he was back in his beak-less ordinary shades and there was no aero nose cover to be seen. In a video since shared by his Jayco AlUla team, it appears the explanation for this was the UCI stepping in and ordering Groenewegen to remove the nose cover.

“I need to put if off, from the UCI... that was a big surprise! I think they saw me not pedalling and said, ‘this is not fair, we need to stop these fast sunglasses’,” the Dutch champion joked.

Perhaps Jayco-AlUla should have thought about using super glue and fixing the beak in place?