Time trials are not for every pro cycling fan. One of the chief complaints you’ll often hear from bike racing fans about the time trial stages in any multi-day bike race is that they’re boring to watch. We’re not saying we necessarily agree with that sentiment, we’re just saying it’s something we’ve heard. A lot.
But regardless of how captivating—or not—you find watching athletes push themselves to the absolute limit against the clock, time trial stages couldn’t be further from dull from a tech and gear perspective. Even if the “race of truth” isn’t your thing as a spectator, time trials are when we’re treated to a display of bike companies and mechanics pushing the aerodynamic equipment envelope. The time trial stage of the Volto ao Algarve was no exception.
Today, we bring you a report of the most-meme’d piece of gear from the final stage of the Volto ao Algarve. It was this: a time trial helmet from the company Sweet Protection. From a side view, it looks pretty like a pretty standard TT helmet:
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But from the front, we can see that it’s anything but ordinary. Only from a frontal view can we fully take in and appreciate the influence of what is unofficially known as the Storm Trooper design aesthetic:
Here, we see it in action:
And here, an undated file photo of the engineer behind the wind-cheating marvel of design, who declined to be interviewed for this article:
Natascha Grief got her first bike shop job before she was old enough to drink. After a six-year stint as a mechanic, earning a couple pro-mechanic certifications and her USA Cycling Race Mechanics license, she became obsessed with framebuilding and decided she wanted to do that next. After Albert Eistentraut literally shooed her off his doorstep, admonishing that if she pursued framebuilding she will be poor forever, she landed an apprenticeship with framebuilder Brent Steelman in her hometown of Redwood City, CA. After that, she spent several years working for both large and not-so-large cycling brands. Somewhere in there she also became a certified bike fitter. Natascha then became a certified personal trainer and spent nine years honing her skills as a trainer and coach, while also teaching Spin. During the dumpster fire that was the year 2020, she opened a fitness studio and began contributing regularly to Runner’s World and Bicycling as a freelance writer. In 2022, she joined the staff of Bicycling as News Editor.
