Specialised has lately introduced a persevered dedication to Workforce SD Worx, in a deal that may stay them in combination till no less than 2028.
The 2 events had been in collaboration since 2014, a season which noticed the logo apply Ellen van Dijk from Specialised-Lululemon (now Canyon-SRAM) to the then Boels-Dolmans group.
In that inaugural 12 months, the group raced aboard the S-Works Amira, and Van Dijk piloted it to good fortune at now not best the Girls Excursion however the Excursion of Flanders too, whilst Lizzie Deignan noticed identical good fortune on the Commonwealth Video games street race.
Like any of its backed groups, the Workforce SD-Worx riders have labored intently with Specialised at the building of its merchandise within the 9 years because the partnership started.
Crucially, they helped give you the knowledge that resulted in the logo’s determination to scrap women-specific motorcycles totally. Having observed more than a few professional riders opting for to journey the logo’s Tarmac ‘males’s motorcycle’ painted up as an Amira, it all started researching. In 2019, it introduced its Past Gender philosophy after discovering that there’s extra distinction between two given males than between women and men usually when it got here to motorcycle have compatibility wishes.
Demi Vollering, winner of the 2023 Excursion de France Femmes, is a key product tester for the logo. She was once pivotal within the building of the logo’s newest race motorcycle, the Tarmac SL8.
“Final 12 months was once a 12 months to by no means disregard,” Vollering mentioned, having received the Vuelta a Burgos Feminas, Dwars door Vlaanderen, Strade Bianche, Los angeles Flèche Wallonne Féminine, the Excursion de Romandie Féminin, Amstel Gold, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Dutch nationwide championships street race, and naturally the Excursion de France Femmes, to call simply the headline wins.
“In conjunction with Specialised it was once a dream come true, with out the continued make stronger and consider it wouldn’t be the similar. Subsequent 12 months might be very particular, we’ll make much more goals come true at the Tarmac SL8.”
Her group supervisor, Danny Stam, who was once within the headlines right through Vollering’s Excursion win for much less excellent causes when he was once booted off the race for bad using, was once similarly complimentary of the American emblem.
“As a group, we now have been running with Specialised since 2014 with nice delight. We’re proud to announce that the long-standing partnership between Specialised and Workforce SD Worx might be prolonged via 2028. We will be happy with what we now have completed in combination as companions during the last few years in professionalising women folk’s biking.”
These days’s dedication, offering it runs its complete time period, will see the collaboration between the 2 lengthen to fourteen years in period.
It is a transfer that mimics the logo’s 2021 dedication to males’s WorldTour group Deceuninck-QuickStep (now Soudal-QuickStep). The 2 facets dedicated for 6 years till 2027, with the then-CEO Mike Sinyard describing the group as “instrumental within the building of state of the art generation” for the logo.
The ones phrases echo loudly in lately’s feedback from Chief of S-Racing, Scott Jackson. He says the deal will permit the logo to “in reality dive into each technical element to make stronger the most productive athletes on the earth.”
This dedication and the failed takeover bid of Soudal-QuickStep via Jumbo Visma (to be referred to as Visma-Hire a Motorbike in 2024) imply that Specialised’s dedication to WorldTour groups in 2024 stays at 3, with Bora-Hansgrohe believed to be proceeding with the logo in that 3rd spot.
The emblem’s take care of Overall-Energies, then again, which took place in 2022 when Specialised’s non-public take care of Peter Sagan was once prolonged to the group upon his signing, stays unclear following his contemporary retirement.