Press Release

June 30, 2016

Increased crash protection with Dyneema®

Protective properties of the bib-shorts are further enhanced by a new and optimized design of the Dyneema fabric.

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Dyneema® reinforced full outfit gives increased crash protection for Giant Alpecin at Tour de France 2016

Heerlen, NL, 30 Jun 2016 16:00 CEST

The Dyneema® reinforced bib-shorts worn by the GIANT-Alpecin team made cycling history at last year’s Tour de France by demonstrating their protective value for cyclists who crashed. For this year’s Tour de France, we also integrated the protective Dyneema fabric into the most critical parts of the jersey.

Dyneema®-reinforced full outfit gives increased crash protection for Giant Alpecin at Tour de France 2016

The protective properties of the bib-shorts are further enhanced by a new and optimized design of the Dyneema fabric. This will improve the protection level in case of more serious crashes by upwards of 50% – without sacrificing performance or wear comfort.

Dyneema really makes a difference,” says champion cyclist Tom Dumoulin of Giant-Alpecin. “Even if you crash and you have nothing except wounds, it’s still very, very annoying. It takes time and energy to recover. Dyneema helps with that, and that’s amazing.”

The new jersey contains Dyneema fabric in the sleeves, shoulders and upper back, the most vulnerable body parts, after thighs, when it comes to a crash.

We have a lot of crashes in the season,” says Dumoulin. “Since the last Tour de France we’re always racing in shorts with Dyneema. And I’ve crashed once, and I know a lot of guys who crashed, and we all had nothing on the hips – and we crash a lot on our hips. So you can definitely say Dyneema makes a big difference.”

As with the shorts, the Dyneema-reinforced shirts are the result of close cooperation between DSM Dyneema scientists, fabric manufacturing partner TAIANA, GIANT-Alpecin’s cyclists and technical staff, and their clothing partner Etxeondo.

In a few years time, all cycling clothing will have this type of protection,” says Dumoulin.