Everybody knows that Filippo Ganna’s record-breaking ride in the Giro’s individual time trial was down his legs and lungs rather than a thin strip of plastic in front of his face but, if Kask’s data is to be believed, his new visor made a significant difference.
The new Kask Mistral 3.0 retains the shell geometry and materials of its predecessor, but introduces the Aero Pro Visor 3.0, which the Italian brand says saves 11 watts at 55kph. Ganna’s average speed in the Giro ITT, a Grand Tour record, was almost exactly that, at 54.921kph over the 42-kilometre flat course between Viareggio and Massa. He finished 1min 54sec in front of Netcompany-Ineos team-mate Thymen Arensman, who was also wearing the new helmet, but Ganna's average speed was just 0.57kph per hour faster than the previous fastest Grand Tour record, set by David Millar in 2003. Without the 11-watt saving from the visor it might have been much closer.
At the beginning of the 2025 season the UCI banned Kask’s Aero Pro Visor 2.0, which featured a horizontal flared ‘lip’ either side of the rider’s nose and was deemed to be in breach of regulation 1.3.033. This decrees that clothing and equipment cannot modify the rider's anatomy, and bans any "non-essential" components added for aerodynamic fairing rather than protection.
Kask went back to the drawing board and has come back with a new visor that saves watts via its shape rather than by non-essential elements. The new shape is more aligned with what’s already in use from other brands – and is UCI legal.
Why the emphasis on the visor? According to Kask, the modern aerodynamic silhouette has changed. With athletes adopting increasingly aggressive head-down positions, where the face is often partially shielded by the hands and forearms, managing airflow around the lower face and shoulders has become the “new frontier of speed”.
The Mistral 3.0 addresses this via a widened, cylindrical profile of the visor – it almost flares outwards instead of following the shape of the face. This minimises turbulence in the critical zones, says Kask.
The other benefit of increased offset from the rider's face is a decreased risk of condensation without sacrificing the laminar flow across the helmet's surface, meaning vision stays sharp and unobstructed.
The Aero Pro Visor was developed in a “virtual environment” (CFD) and validated in a physical wind tunnel with Ganna and is “a masterclass in marginal gains”. It’s made with a 3D-printed nylon frame that holds the polycarbonate lens and weighs a claimed 70 grams. It attaches to the Mistral shell via three new lateral magnets that Kask says ensures stability at high speeds.
The new Mistral 3.0 is of course also aimed at the triathlon market where athletes are very unlikely to average 55kph, so Kask provides examples of watt savings at lower speeds too: at 45kph it’s 6 watts and 50kph 8 watts.
Saving those watts is fairly costly in terms of pricing: the Mistral 3.0, including the clear visor, is priced at €700 EUR/$800/£600. A spare Clear Aero Pro Visor 3.0: €370 EUR/$430/£330 and a spare Silver Mirror Aero Pro Visor 3.0 is €390 EUR.$450/£350 GBP. The helmet is only available in size large (59-62cm) and the Aero Pro Visor 3.0 is not compatible with the previous Mistral. It's available from today June 4 – visit Kask's website for all the details.
But could Ganna go even faster if Kask pushed the boundaries of the UCI’s bounding boxes even further? Even with the new visor the Kask is by no means the most radical TT helmet out there – it’s almost conservative compared with large-volume designs like the Giro Aerohead II, which debuted back in 2024. Rudy Project’s Wingdream claims to save 16.6 watts over its predecessor at the lower speed of 45and Abus’s Timeshifter is 10.5-14.7 watts faster than the GameChanger TT 1.1 model at 50kph. These both deploy more extreme versions of the flared visor. There's a new, as-yet-unreleased Met TT helmet that Tadej Pogačar has been using, which also looks huge, flared and lipped.
However, watt savings from TT helmets are very dependent on the rider’s shape and position, so it’s possible that an even bigger visor and a bigger shell might not have been as effective for Ganna. What’s for certain is that there isn’t a helmet out there yet that’s fast enough to close the gap between Ganna and his rivals in a flat TT.
