In the biggest race of the year, four Pro Tour teams have been racing for the past week and a half with a couple of new Ekoi road helmets equipped with Koroyd protection tech – Cofidis, Arkéa Samsic, Lotto Dstny & Israel – Premier Tech. The iconic plastic honeycomb layer tech will now boost impact protection in the new aero Aerodinamica and lightweight Stradale, while providing increased heat dissipation of the rider’s head.
Ekoi Koroyd-equipped road bike helmets at the Tour de France
Two stage winners at this summer’s Tour de France have already crossed the finish line first wearing Ekoi helmets – Victor LaFay of Cofidis on Stage 2 and then Michael Woods of Israel – Premier Tech on Stage 9 – albeit with the current non-Koroyd AR14 aero helmet.
But Caleb Ewan of Lotto Dstny has going hard and been close to victory – sprinting to 3rd in Stage 3, then 2nd in Stage 4 in sprints behind Jasper Philipsen – wearing the latest Koroyd-equipped Ekoi Aerodinamica aero road helmet.
When the race entered the mountains, we also spotted a number of Israel – Premier Tech riders with the lighter, more open-vented Stradale.
Koroyd tech inside
Ekoi says they partnered with Koroyd to benefit from increased rider protection over conventional light in-mold EPS foam construction, without sacrificing on weight or ventilation.
“There’s a lot of stress in the peloton, especially during major events such as the Grand Tours or the Classics, which is why we wanted to work on safety in the event of a crash,” said Jean-Christophe Rattel, Ekoi CEO. “We approached Koroyd because we saw their concept to be the best way of optimizing the protection in our helmet.”
Tech Details – What do we know?
Ekoï describes the new Aerodinamica as their “pinnacle aero helmet, integrated with KOROYD for the ultimate in impact protection and advanced breathability”. Developed together with Italian aero specialist design firm Pininfarina, the Aerodinamica features just three vertical vents across a smooth front, no top or side vents, and a chopped-off aerodynamic tail cone shape revealing a large rear exhaust port. It looks a lot like a scaled-back aero TT helmet adapted for more versatile road riding.
The new Stradale on the other hand, opts for a fully open approach for maximum ventilation – with a new Koroyd Connect Integration Solution. Here, you can see the plastic Koroyd honeycomb as it sits under the outer polycarbonate shell and top layer of EPS foam – but is also cut away at some fully open vents to allow direct airflow cooling vs. the Koroyd solutions we’ve seen with Smith & Endura helmets in the past.
New Ekoi Koroyd helmet availability
Ekoi have technically debuted the two new Koroyd-equipped road helmets now that they’ve come out of hiding at the Tour de France, yet it’s really mostly just a teaser. We’ll still have to wait a while to get the full details, and you’ll have to wait a while until you can buy them direct from Ekoi. Official consumer availability is slated for September 2023, when we should get key data like pricing, weights, colors & sizing.
Until then, we just have to enjoy le Tour.
