Saturday’s seventh stage at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift was the first of two tough climbing stages this weekend, which are set to decide the general classification and overall winner of the race.
With that in mind, Cycling Weekly went to the start in Sélestat to visit some of the bigger teams to see how the mechanics aim help their riders deal with the punishing climbs of the Vosges Mountains.
With so much climbing ahead most teams altered their gearing, with some interesting and varied choices being made.
Movistar
The winning bike on stage seven was Annemiek van Vleuten’s Canyon AeroRoad equipped, like many other bikes among the top women’s teams, with SRAM Red AXS eTap. The Dutch star, who won the day by a huge 3:26 margin, had different gearing to the rest of the Movistar team.
While the whole team were running 52/39 chainrings at the front, most of the Spanish squad were equipped with 10/33 at the back. However, with her extra climbing prowess, and the need to be able to attack hard, Van Vleuten had a 10/30 cassette.
(Image credit: Owen Rogers)
SD WORX
SD Worx took a different approach to most other teams, leaving their bikes as they are for most other races.
Also riding SRAM Red AXS eTap, the Dutch squad rode 49/35 at the front, with 10/33 cassettes. One thing to note is that their two former world champions, Chantal van den Broek-Blaak (road, 2018) and Lotte Kopecky (Madison,2017 and Points Race, 2021) both have rather blingy gold chains and cassettes.
(Image credit: Owen Rogers)
Jumbo-Visma
Marianne Vos has spent five days riding in the race leader’s maillot jaune and her Jumbo-Visma team had the most changes, with all but one rider — Noemi Rüegg — starting the day on Cervélo’s climbing bike, the R5. The Swiss rider chose to ride her more aero S5, which has been used by the rest of the team for the earlier stages.
The Dutch squad did not change their gearing. The squad uses a Shimano’s Dura-Ace groupset with 53/36 chainrings and 11/32 cassettes at the back.
Trek-Segafredo
Trek-Segafredo allow their riders to choose their own gearing and tyre pressures, and both are a closely guarded secret, suggesting some odd choices or unreleased tech. However, the team would disclose a couple of changes made for the Tour’s final two stages.
Both American Leah Thomas and the home favourite and French national champion Audrey Cordon-Ragot selected a 10/33 cassette at the back of their SRAM Red AXS eTap equipped bikes. However, while Thomas…