SD Worx has pulled a surprise heading into the Tour of Scandinavia, which starts Tuesday 9th August 2022. Marlen Reusser was originally down as riding for the Dutch team but a late change saw another Swiss rider take her place. Sina Frei, known mainly as a mountain biker will race instead. She has participated in the Tour de Suisse on the road in the last 2 seasons, with good results. The Tour de Suisse has started to get a reputation for showing off some of the Swiss cycling talents that rarely race on the road.
The rest of the SD Worx team includes GC favourite Demi Vollering, Anna Shackley, Elena Cecchini, Blanka Vas and Niamh Fisher-Black. The team is set up for the GC battle, with Vollering looking to improve on her 2nd in GC at the Tour de France Femmes. The inclusion of Frei is a surprise but she may get a chance with Vas and Cecchini on the flatter stages.
Frei rides mountain bike races for the Specialized Factory Team, with SD Worx riding Specialized bikes, there is a link there. She is the current world champion in the short track discipline in MTB and also won Olympic silver at Tokyo in the cross-country. We also saw Frei race for Switzerland in the road world championships last season, held in Leuven. In that race, Frei finished a creditable 15th in what was a tough race that finished with a decently sized bunch sprint.
“In the past, our team has already had a similar experience with Annika Langvad, who made the same combination. The cooperation with Specialized has been very good for years and everyone is reaping the benefits of this. This is a win-win situation.
It is up to Sina herself how we will implement this in the future, but to start with, this is a nice stepping stone. We are confident that this will continue. The fact that talents like Sina can make the combination in this way only benefits the breadth of women’s cycling.”
Danny Stam, SD Worx sporting director
