Demi Vollering’s team follow Van Aert, Pidcock and Evenepoel with striking Red Bull helmets

Demi Vollering and her FDJ United-SUEZ teammates will stand out even more in the peloton from the start of the Tour de France Femmes. Shortly before the opening stage on Saturday, the French women’s team announced a new partnership with Red Bull, further strengthening the energy drink brand’s increasingly prominent position in professional cycling.

Red Bull has become a familiar presence in the cycling peloton. What began with personal sponsorship deals involving Wout van Aert of Visma | Lease a Bike and Tom Pidcock, now riding for Pinarello-Q36.5, has expanded considerably in recent years. The company now supports a growing number of individual riders and even has a title-sponsored WorldTour team in Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe.

The energy drink brand is also a partner of Tudor Pro Cycling, while Anton Palzer had already held an individual agreement with Red Bull during his time at Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. His helmet now attracts less attention because all his teammates wear Red Bull-branded helmets. Individually sponsored riders remain easier to identify, however, as their Red Bull helmets are noticeably different from those worn by the rest of their respective teams.

FDJ United-SUEZ are the first women’s cycling team to receive official sponsorship from Red Bull, although Zoe Bäckstedt already has an individual partnership with the brand while riding for CANYON//SRAM. “What brings us together goes beyond performance,” FDJ United-SUEZ team manager Stephen Delcourt said. “We want to innovate and find new ways of telling the story of our sport.”

“The fact that this partnership begins at the Tour de France Femmes is very special for us and marks a new step in our development,” the manager of the French women’s team added. “It perfectly reflects our ambition: to keep progressing on the road by daring to push boundaries and go far beyond them.”

For Vollering, it is certainly not the first major brand she has welcomed into her personal and professional circle. Away from the team’s partnerships, the Dutch leader has been one of the leading faces of brands including Specialized, Nike, Polestar and Maurten for several years.