Road Cycling - front brake,changes.

Watching a couple of the pro-race events on the tv lately, I have noticed a new inovation to the front rim brake set up.

The first time I saw it! I said to myself "that bike has no front brake" then on a closer viewing saw that the front brake was situated behind the front fork as opposed to its usual siting in front of the fork.

As there was no comment on this different braking set up I cannot see what the reason for the change can be, unless it is just the particular cycle producers attempting to come come up with something different.

Any one else noticed this? or of the reasoning behind the design.

Years ago a manufacturer tried something similiar with the brakes on the rear wheels. Instead of being mounted on the seat stays the brakes were mounted behind the bottom bracket. As you can see that idea never caught on. The only reasons I could think of for mounting a front brake behind the fork would be for either stiffness or aerodynamics. A major downside of this I would think would be in wet conditions where the slop from the tires would get all over the pads.

Was this on a time trail bike, it may have been a move to improve the aerodynamics. Because of the angle of the mounting hole and the shape of the nut, the fork would probably need to be formed drilled special for this setup.
I have seen some really large customs with the rear brake backwards to get a better angle at the wheel. The Harry Havnoonian bikes come to mind.

I'm thinking about doing that on my project bianchi. it has these crappy side-pulls that I can see visibly flexing forward when I brake. the rear brakes don't do this, so I'm thinking that I might switch the brake around to see how it works...I'm not sure if I'd have enought room though.