Million Euro contracts, expansive budgets and trickle-down economics - the Tour de France Femmes effect

TOPSHOT - Team SD Worx's Dutch rider Demi Vollering wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey reacts before taking the start of the eighth and final stage (out of 8) of the second edition of the Women's Tour de France cycling race a 22,6 km individual time trial between Pau and Pau, south-western France, on July 30, 2023. Dutch rider Demi Vollering won the women's Tour de France on July 30, 2023. (Photo by JEFF PACHOUD / AFP) (Photo by JEFF PACHOUD/AFP via Getty Images).

Million Euro contracts, expansive budgets and trickle-down economics - the Tour de France Femmes effect

In the last few years, women’s cycling has been through waves of dramatic and wide-reaching change. Go back to 2019, and you’ll find a situation that was very different to today: no real Tour de France for women, no Paris-Roubaix, no WorldTour team status, no minimum wage for women, and no huge contracts. Fast forward to today, and the women’s peloton has all those things and more, with the trajectory only heading upwards.