Four bike swaps in 60km for the Tour de France Femmes winner
(Image credit: Sprint Cycling Agency)
A storming ride on Saturday's queen stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift saw Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team) take the yellow jersey by over three minutes over Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx). Naturally, befitting any yellow jersey wearer, at the start of the following day's final stage from Lure to La Super Planche des Belles Filles, her bike sponsor Canyon rolled out a brand new bike decked out in yellow everything.
Interestingly, for a stage that finished atop a gravel climb at the top of a mountain, Canyon provided Van Vleuten with its aero bike, the Aeroad CFR, rather than the brand new lightweight Ultimate CFR we spotted just last month at the Critérium du Dauphiné. But of course, the Aeroad is no porker. For my own Canyon Aeroad review, I weighed it at 7.3kg in size L with tubeless wheels, so Van Vleuten's size XS frame with tubular Zipp 303 tubular wheels would surely be knocking on that 6.8kg limit… wouldn't it?
Perhaps not.
In the first 60km of Sunday's stage, Van Vleuten was spotted changing bikes four times, and according to reports by Cycling Weekly, the reasons pertained primarily to weight.
Movistar's team press officer, Dani Sánchez, explained that the extra coats of yellow paint added grams, and that was enough to put the Dutch team leader off using the bike for the ascent of La Super Planche des Belles Filles. It's unconfirmed exactly how many grams would be added for this particular coat of paint, but estimates range from 80 to 150 grams. For those same reasons, she rides an unpainted version of the Aeroad while her teammates use a black and blue team-edition colourway.
According to Sánchez, the plan was set that at a predetermined point, Van Vleuten would switch to her usual, unpainted bike. However, shortly after, an untimely mechanical meant the leader was forced onto a teammate's bike, which didn't fit, so was then forced back onto the yellow bike. Once the lighter-weight unpainted bike had been fixed, she repeated the original swap onto the unpainted Aeroad, now complete with odd Zipp wheels - one black, and one yellow.
It would appear that all the effort was worth it, for the Dutchwoman went on to win the stage ahead of her closest rival Vollering by 30 seconds to cement her place atop the general classification.
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Naturally, an 'aero' bike at 6.8kg will be faster than a 'lightweight' bike at 6.8kg, so it makes sense that Van Vleuten would prefer to ride the Aeroad, but adding all this yellow paint seemingly tipped the scales too far. (Image credit: Getty Images)
It wasn't only the frame given yellow highlights though. The Lizard Skins bar tape and Elite bottle cages were blinged up too. (Image credit: Sprint Cycling Agency)
As were the SRAM and Zipp logos... (Image credit: Sprint Cycling Agency)
...even the brake levers were given yellow SRAM logos. (Image credit: Sprint Cycling Agency)
...as was the protective case surrounding her Garmin. (Image credit: Sprint Cycling Agency)
The Aeroad CFR's handlebar is a novel quill-type one-piece bar, stem and steerer tube that allows both the width and the height of the bars to be adjusted without cutting or replacing components. (Image credit: Sprint Cycling Agency)
Here is Van Vleuten's unpainted bike, which was also given some of the same yellow details. (Image credit: Getty Images)
The bike on which Van Vleuten finished the stage was that lightweight model, complete with odd wheels after the earlier mechanical. (Image credit: Getty Images)
Josh is Associate Editor of Cyclingnews – leading our content on the best bikes, kit and the latest breaking tech stories from the pro peloton. He has been with us since the summer of 2019 and throughout that time he's covered everything from buyer's guides and deals to the latest tech news and reviews.
On the bike, Josh has been riding and racing for over 15 years. He started out racing cross country in his teens back when 26-inch wheels and triple chainsets were still mainstream, but he found favour in road racing in his early 20s, racing at a local and national level for Somerset-based Team Tor 2000. These days he rides indoors for convenience and fitness, and outdoors for fun on road, gravel, 'cross and cross-country bikes, the latter usually with his two dogs in tow.
