Sheena Fry will swap bikes this week and compete in the first round of the Tour of Scandinavia, a six-stage race from Tuesday, August 9 to Sunday, August 14, from SD Works.

It is not uncommon for mountain bikers to make it to the road, and compatriot Yolanda Neff is on that list. In fact, Frey has competed on the road for the past two years with her mountain bike compatriots on the Tour de Suisse national team. He also finished 15th in the world championship road race in Flanders.

However, this is the first time that the Tokyo Olympic silver medalist and world champion short track racer has been named to a top-ranked team, and in a women's World Tour race where SD Worx rates her as a favorite to win overall with Demi Volering SD Worx rates her and Demi Vollering as the overall favorites to win the Women's World Tour race. Furthermore, the Tour of Scandinavia will be just the beginning for the riders on the Specialized Factory Team. [SD Worx sport manager Danny Stamm said in a statement, "It's up to Sheena to decide how she wants to proceed, but it's a good stepping stone to start with. The fact that a talent like Sheena can make the combination in this way can only be beneficial to the breadth of women's cycling."

This is not the first time a Dutch women's team has welcomed an off-road rider to the team, with Annika Langvad competing in consecutive one-day races in 2019, finishing on the podium with a second place in Strade Bianche and a third in La Flèche Wallonne Feminine.

Fry, who has missed the last two North American rounds of the Mountain Bike World Cup, joins the team to take on the varied Scandinavian Tour, which has stages for sprinters, braking specialists, and climbers.

Volering, who finished second in the Tour de France Femme, leads the team's overall hopes and will be joined by Elena Cecchini, Blanca Vas, Anna Shackley, and Niamh Fischer-Black along with Frye.

"Having such a versatile team at the start is an advantage," Fischer-Black said. He is looking to team up with Vollering for some "fireworks" in the summit finish of stage 5 after returning to team racing after finishing fifth overall at the Giro d'Italia Donnay.

"We have to play to the strengths of the team," he said. We have to play to our team's strengths, because this round is very unpredictable."

"Newcomer Sheena Frye comes from a technical mountain bike background. After all, there are a number of stages with technically complex profiles and we will reap the rewards. It will definitely be a fascinating race."