World time trial champion Remco Evenepoel scorched to victory on the stage 4 individual time trial stage at the Critérium du Dauphiné today, the Belgian star covered the 17.4km course in a time of 20:50 to take the win by 21 seconds from Jonas Vingegaard, while Vingegaard's American teammate Matteo Jorgenson, another powerhouse in his own right, placed third at 38 seconds. Tadej Pogačar came home in fourth, 49 seconds adrift.
Watching Evenepoel in full flight in a time trial, or road race for that matter, is a joy, his body proportions and aerodynamic position on the bike mean he looks and is frighteningly fast.
We are pretty used to seeing him in time trial mode, but today, we noticed some fresh aero tech that we hadn’t noticed before. The clock waits for no one in today's WorldTour, and the sports stars will be looking to optimise their setups at the Dauphine ahead of the Tour de France next month.
We noticed a different skinsuit, helmet visor and chest 'fairing' for Evenepoel today. The Belgian may have also been using a similar skinsuit at the Tour de Romandie last month, but the helmet visor is a new one on us. Already very capable against the clock, the Belgian may be pressing his advantage before the big show in France next month.
A new time trial helmet visor
First up is what appears to be a new helmet visor design for Evenepoel’s Specialized time trial helmet. We have seen a few different visor versions before, but this one has a curved section cutout around the middle of the face.
At face value, it looks counterproductive, and even prompted Cyclingnews Editor Peter Stuart to say it looks to have "all the disadvantages of obstructing view with none of the eye-protection benefits."
We don’t know for sure what it does, but we're sure there will be a good reason for it.
On the visibility front, more extreme time trial positions have resulted in a few accidents in the last few years, perhaps improved visibility in an already very aero position is welcome too.
It could be for vision, cooling purposes, or it could be to affect airflow and the way it interacts with the rest of the Belgian's body and kit as a system overall, which brings us onto the next hack.
An unknown Castelli skinsuit
After looking at the Castelli website, there is no sign of this skinsuit, which zips up at the back. Rear placed zips have been around for decades, but you don't see them on many skinsuits.
The skinsuit looks to have trip strips on the arms and back panels. Raised sections which affect the boundary layer of air flowing over the body, and the skinsuit, which can provide an aero gain. The back of the skinsuit also features these trips, which is something we hadn't spotted at Romandie or seen until today's time trial.
This doesn't look like the Castelli San Remo S skinsuit; that model features arm trip strips, but has rear pockets and a regular zip location, so we assume this is a new pro-only or prototype issue for the world champion currently.
Lastly, the skinsuit has an open mesh material on the undersides of the arms, and cooling could be a priority here, with material that isn't in the wind. A few brands told us last year that aerodynamic and cooling race kit is a priority in the heat.
An aero chest 'fairing'
Our third and final aero move from today looks to be the placement of something under the skinsuit in the chest area for Evenepoel. Something we can't say we have noticed him use before.
It's fairly common knowledge now that placing something in this area, like a bottle or perhaps a race radio, can result in some aero gains. We proved it to be faster in our latest round of wind tunnel testing, but it was first brought to light when Alex Dowsett and Dan Bigham used a padded radio pocket in this position for Team GB, although Bigham later rejected the claim that it bent the UCI's rules.
Now, it looks like Evenepoel has placed something here for another aero gain.
Riders have, in years gone by, placed hydration packs on their chest under their skinsuits for aero gains, but a change in UCI rules eliminated this option a few years ago. It seems this smaller, less ungainly tweak is still UCI legal, though don't hold your breath just yet.
