Why Annemiek van Vleuten kept switching her yellow bikes mid-race

In the first half of the eighth and final stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, race leader Annemiek van Vleuten —decked from head to toe in yellow— was seen switching bikes five times. 

The 39-year-old climbing sensation started the race on her special, all-yellow Canyon Aeroad which was presented to her on the morning of the race. 

She then switched to her spare bike, a black Canyon Aeroad with yellow accents. This move was pre-planned, Dani Sánchez, Movistar’s communications offer explained.

The reason? Paint is heavy. 

“She wants it as light as possible, and layers of paint mean some extra grams,” Sanchez said.

This is also why Van Vleuten normally rides an all-black Canyon with blue decals versus the team issue black-blue-and-white colorway. 

But when she then encountered a mechanical, Van Vleuten was briefly forced to change bikes with a teammate who quickly came to her race leader’s aide.

This bike didn’t seem to fit Van Vleuten quite right, however, so the Movistar team car returned once again to allow Van Vleuten to get back on her yellow bike while the black bike was being fixed.

Once the repair was completed, the team car returned for a fifth time to give Van Vleuten back her preferred bike, the black-with-yellow-accents one. 

All this switcheroo occurred within the first 60 kilometers of the race, and while it would have been perhaps the only way to make up some of the massive gap Van Vleuten has on her competitors, sportsmanship reigned. Demi Vollering (SD Worx) appeared to be speaking to her team radio, perhaps telling riders to allow Van Vleuten to reconnect after the mechanical.