RED-2012 and the Rêve Tour

The Tour is one, the six girls are ready for hours on their bike! ©VeloDramatic

While we were busy promoting the daily successes of SRAM RED-2012 throughout the 2012 Tour de France – Green jerseys, stage wins, podium finishers – six exceptional women, with a range of cycling experience, rode each stage 24 hours ahead of the race. The simplified purpose of their adventure, in SRAM terms – all 21 stages and 3479 kilometers – was to demonstrate how SRAM RED-2012 componentry could help riders complete extraordinary rides.

SRAM equipped each of the six Rêve women with SRAM RED-2012 componentry, including WiFLi specific drivetrain, SRAM RED-2012 Quarq power meters and Zipp wheels.

SRAM RED-2012 is SRAM’s newest, lightest, and fastest groupset, featuring countless technologies and benefits (visit sram.com/road for more info). New to RED-2012 is WiFLi, SRAM’s Wider-faster-Lighter drivetrain technology that was introduced several years ago in Rival and Apex. WiFLi features a compact crank, the world’s first 11-32 road cassette, and a mid-cage (longer) rear derailleur. It’s a sophisticatedly simple drivetrain system delivering an incredibly wide gear range, allowing the average rider to scale and descend the Tour de France’s toughest mountain stages, as was proven by the Rêve six.

From all the rider feedback, comments, tweets, and blogs, it was obvious the gruppo made a difference throughout their grueling challenge. All six riders confirmed that with days of riding lasting as long as nine hours, the ergonomics, gear ratios, and benefits of SRAM RED-2012 with WiFLI were immeasurable.

“The TdF says it has flat, hilly and mountain stages, but we quickly realized that all of the stages have a lot of elevation gain. The WIFLi enabled us to spin up the rollers, hills and mountains. I remember looking around at some of the men climbing next to me and seeing that they had triples.”  - Rêve rider Jennifer Schweitzer.

“I’m not exaggerating when I say we couldn’t have done it without you (SRAM and WIFLi!).” – Rêve rider Kate Powlison

“I love my WiFLi.” – Rêve rider Kym Fant

The Cannondale SuperSix EVO Women – SRAM RED-2012, WiFLI, Quarq, Zipp 101 equipped ©VeloDramatic

The Rêve Tour Bike:
Frame: Cannondale SuperSix EVO Women
Wheels: Zipp
SRAM RED-2012 ErgoDynamic shift levers
SRAM RED-2012 mid-cage WiFLi rear derailleur
SRAM RED-2012 YAW front derailleur
SRAM RED-2012 Quarq compact power meter crankset – 50/34
Garmin 500/800 displays
SRAM XG 1090 11-32 cassettes
SRAM PC 1091R chain
SRAM RED-2012 press-fit-30 bottom bracket
SRAM RED-2012 AeroLink brake calipers
SRAM black brakepads – aluminum specific
Zipp grey brakepads – carbon specific
SRAM Professional Cable System by Gore RideOn