2018 Women's Tarmac SL6 Expert

The Women's Tarmac Expert isn't just a bike that's born to race—it's a bike that proves you don't need to take out a second mortgage to have a luxurious ride. This Women's Tarmac will excel dutifully at every discipline of road riding, from climbs to sprints—put it through its paces, and don't be surprised that you're smiling at the top of the climb.

To get the weight around 950 grams, we utilized advanced aerospace composite optimization software to revolutionize the construction and layup of our new FACT 10r carbon. It's the most advanced material and schedule we've ever made—the shape, schedule, and material optimization allowed us to shed nearly 200 grams. That's right, a 20% reduction in frame weight—the perfect recipe for your next hill climb PR.

We then further improved our Rider-First Engineered™ technology to ensure that the new Tarmac is stiff and compliant in exactly the right places. With this revamp, we also updated the geometry—basing it on countless Retül data points and professional rider input. This enabled us to develop a performance road geometry that perfects the combination of a responsive front end and short wheelbase, delivering instantaneous response and optimal power transfer.

And while stiffness aids in the aforementioned, compliance must also be utilized for an optimal ride quality. That's why we designed a seatpost that builds compliance into the upper 120mm where clamping doesn’t happen, dropped the seatstays, and altered the seat tube shape. We also added tire clearance up to 30mm, which translates to a 28mm Turbo Cotton on a Roval SLX 24 rim. This allows lower pressures for decreased rolling resistance, increased traction, and more comfort. Altogether, these additions still have the Tarmac riding like a true race-machine, but just takes a bit of the sting out of those road imperfections. You’ll thanks us on your next long ride.

And while this is all great, we know that aerodynamics are the most important thing we can do to make you faster. Our Boels-Dolmans Pro Tour riders, after all, are demanding aero improvements on every bike. With this, the aero goal was to discover where we could essentially “add aero for free,” by not taking anything away from the hallmarks of the Tarmac design. During the six-month iterative process, three areas were discovered where we could do this—a new fork shape, dropped seatstays with aero tubes, and a d-shaped seatpost and seat tube. The result? A bike that’s approximately 45 seconds faster over 40km compared to other lightweight bikes in the same category. A speed savings that you'll feel when you're attacking off the front of the peloton.

This Women's Tarmac Expert comes ready to race out of the box, featuring a crisp Shimano Ultegra 8000 groupset, lightweight Roval SLX 24 rims laced to DT Swiss hubs, our fastest S-Works Turbo 26mm tires, and a sublime Oura Expert Gel saddle.

• The FACT 10r carbon frame combines the lightweight performance and compliance of our top-end carbon production methods with our Rider-First Engineered™ design that ensures every frame size has the same legendary climbing responsiveness and descending prowess you'd expect from a Tarmac.

• S-Works FACT full carbon fork with tapered construction provides incredible front end stiffness and steering response for instantaneous accelerations and high-speed descents.

• The Roval SLX 24 Disc wheelset features a sub-1600-gram weight, a 20-millimeter internal width, and an alloy construction that makes it a solid road performer.