Jonas Vingegaard’s red helmet was a red herring: what’s underneath the paint is actually an unreleased aero model from Giro, which is claimed to be 17 watts faster than the current Eclipse. The helmet has been worn by Visma-Lease a Bike riders in this Tour de France and was also worn by Canyon//SRAM zondacrypto in the Giro d’Italia Women, with Antonia Niedermaier taking fifth place on GC and the maglia bianca young riders’ classification.
Visma-Lease a Bike has a partnership with Bygma, a Danish building supplies company, which stipulates that Vingegaard wears a red helmet with Bygma logos while the rest of the team (with the exception of Wout van Aert, who wears a Red Bull-branded helmet) wear yellow and black. The helmet itself, however, is the new Giro Eclipse Pro, due to launch in spring 2026. Giro shared some early details with us, claiming that this is its “most advanced blend of aerodynamic innovation and performance protection to date, marking a new era for the aero-road category”.
The US brand says the helmet was developed with pro riders from Visma and Canyon//SRAM and was designed in CFD in order to optimise its aerodynamics, then wind tunnel tested in California. The layout of the vents at the front and on top of the helmet has been significantly revised so that the four in a V shape at the front have gone, replaced by a single slot intake at the front centre. Giro says this design splits air to the forehead and over the brow and is more aerodynamically efficient when the head is down. Although there’s no information about the speed at which the Eclipse Pro is 17 watts faster than the old model, it’s probably at least 50kph, which is becoming the new mark – it undoubtedly supplies a much cleaner leading edge. Vingegaard and Visma are already using the new Cervélo S5, which the Canadian bike brand says is six watts faster than its predecessor: a total saving of 23 watts just from the bike and the helmet is considerable.
As for crash protection, the Eclipse Pro again uses Giro’s own Spherical Mips technology, which is basically an EPS shell within an EPS shell separated by a low-friction layer, enabling them to rotate against each other in an impact. The weight remains the same at a claimed 270 grams. Giro doesn’t specify which size, but the Met Manta aero helmet – as worn by Tadej Pogačar and his UAE Team Emirates-XRG – has a listed weight of 270 grams for the size large.
Last week, we reported on what we know so far about the unreleased Met Trenta 3K Carbon lightweight vented helmet that Tadej Pogačar and his UAE Team Emirates are wearing. You could say the rivalry has gone to their heads, but what’s for sure is that Visma will hoping Pogačar sees red when the race hits the big mountains – ideally a red helmet crossing the line first. Will it be enough? Vingegaard rode a sub-par time trial on stage five, but admitted he was having a bad day. If he claws back the time in the mountains, it won't be thanks to better aerodynamics, but if he's to hold on until the end he'll need to save every watt of drag he can.
