A Tarmac SL8 with MTB transmission to survive the Angliru

The first women’s climb up Angliru wasn’t just a historic day for Paula Blasi and La Vuelta Femenina. It also gave us a glimpse of one of the strangest and most specific setups ever seen in professional road cycling. To face the brutal slopes of the Asturian giant, Anna van der Breggen decided to abandon her usual bike setup and install a hybrid drivetrain combining road and MTB components.

Van der Breggen used an extreme MTB gear ratio to climb the Angliru in the Women's Vuelta

The Dutch rider, who was defending the red jersey in the final stage, appeared at the start line on a Specialized Tarmac SL8 equipped with a highly unusual setup. The SD Worx-Protime mechanics removed the traditional double-chainring system to install an extremely lightweight single-chainring setup designed exclusively to tackle the Angliru.

Up front, she mounted a 46-tooth chainring, but the real standout was at the rear. Instead of the usual road rear derailleur, Van der Breggen used an older SRAM XX1 Eagle AXS wireless derailleur paired with a massive 10-52 MTB cassette.

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That means the Dutch rider competed in a Grand Tour on a drivetrain more typical of an XCO bike. The goal was to have a huge range of gears to maintain cadence on the Angliru’s climbs steeper than 20% and avoid hitting a muscle wall on the most brutal sections of the ascent.

 

 

 

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The setup also featured an interesting mix of generations and standards within SRAM. The rear derailleur used belongs to the first-generation Eagle AXS launched in 2019, and the new AXS gravel or MTB groupsets couldn’t be used because the Specialized Tarmac SL8 still uses a conventional derailleur hanger and doesn’t have a frame compatible with UDH mounting.

As we mentioned, the chosen setup was much closer to an extreme gravel bike or even an XC bike than to a conventional World Tour bike. And it makes sense given the stage profile. The Angliru featured over 12 kilometers of climbing with average gradients close to 10% and maximum gradients of 23.5%, figures that pushed several riders to use unprecedented gear ratios.

However, the technical gamble didn’t quite pay off as hoped, and Van der Breggen ultimately lost ground in the decisive kilometers to Paula Blasi’s attack. The Dutch rider crossed the finish line in fifth place, 59 seconds behind stage winner Petra Stiasny and 36 seconds behind Blasi—a gap wide enough to hand over the red jersey.