Team SD Worx's Demi Vollering enters the women's Tour de France as one of the key favourites to win the yellow jersey. The mountains and punchy hills that this route is filled with are the Dutch rider's bread and butter, and she will relish the final two days where the peloton head up the Grand Ballon and La Super Planche des Belles Filles.
The varied nature of the eight-day Tour de France Femmes means that Vollering needs a bike that can do it all. It has to be fast enough for the sprint stages, responsive enough for sharp accelerations and light enough to pull its weight in the high mountains. With this in mind, Vollering is riding the Specialized S-Works Tarmac throughout the whole race, a bike which isn't especially aero or especially lightweight: it sits in the middle as a perfect all-rounder. Ahead of the race's opening stage on the Champs-Élysées, we got a closer look at the Dutch rider's weapon of choice for her biggest race of the season.All of the Team SD Worx bikes have a fetching custom purple and pink paint job which matches well with the pink jerseys that the team wear throughout the season. Vollering had Tacx bottle cages as the company are sponsors of the team – they were warming up on Tacx Neo trainers ahead of the stage. Vollering's bike also had a Quarq SRAM Red AXS power meter and TIME pedals. SD Worx are the only women's WorldTour squad to be sponsored by Specialized.Vollering rode a slammed Zipp stem which will help her to get as low and aerodynamic as possible during the race. The team's mechanics will be pleased to see they this bike doesn't feature a fully integrated cockpit. The Dutch rider also used Zipp bars with a flattened top.All of the SD Worx team bike are adorned with the 12-speed SRAM Red eTap AXS groupset.Vollering's saddle of choice is the Specialized S-Works Power Mimic saddle, one that has been known to especially suit the female anatomy. Specialized also provide the team with shoes, helmets and apparel.The team were riding Zipp 303 Firecrest wheels – featuring the older Zipp logos – with S-Works Turbo Cotton tyres. Vollering has stuck to the same wheels throughout the race so far and we expect to see her ride these in the mountains too. Vollering was using Supacaz bar tape, she didn't have a head unit on her bike at the time of shooting these photos but she has been using the Garmin Edge 830 so far in the race.