In the long march of women’s bike racers towards parity within their sport, there have been obvious turning points, moments when the process has noticeably accelerated and gained fresh, and crucially lasting, momentum.
It was 1958 when the UCI incorporated women’s world championships, against their will and in miserly fashion, remaining at the mercy of organisers who might not want to be part of the process. The accession of women racers to the Olympics in 1984 was immense, although again there was no initial recognition that women could or should be allowed to race for the same medals as men. Others might point to the first women’s Tour of Flanders in 2004, or to the founding of the Women’s Tour in the UK in 2014.
Sunday afternoon, when the first stage of the Tour de France Femmes rolls away from the Eiffel Tower for an 80km circuit race on the Champs Elysées, should turn out to be one of those points, no matter who wears the yellow jersey when the race finishes up La Planche des Belles Filles in eastern France on 31 July. The relaunch of the women’s Tour de France, run by the men’s Tour organisers after a 33-year break, has already had tangible effects.
New teams have appeared, and established squads have acquired new sponsors. Established organisers have had to raise their game. New stage races have emerged on the calendar, most notably the Tour of Switzerland, Tour of Scandinavia and the Ceratizit Challenge. The men’s Tour has always had a centrifugal effect, forcing change simply by its presence and economic importance; even before it had begun, the Tour de France Femmes looked to be having the same effect.
“Historically, this is a male sport,” said the multiple world champion Marianne Vos in an interview on Friday with the newspaper L’Equipe. “In countries with a cycling tradition, men’s cycling was immense. Women’s cycling didn’t exist, and it wasn’t good or bad, it was just a fact. It’s taken time for women’s racing to develop and become professional.
“From what I’ve seen in the last 15 or 20 years, there has been an enormous evolution. The Tour is the outcome of that process of change.”
The Tour de France Femmes has its context. Rather than being an entirely new event in its own right, it is the latest in a series of attempts going back to 1955 – when a six day race was held through Normandy, won by the Manxwoman Millie Robinson – to found a women’s stage race that builds on the foundations of the men’s Tour. The most sustained attempt came between 1984 and 1989, dominated by the Italian Maria Canins and France’s Jeannie Longo, until the Tour organisers felt their event was getting too big to manage, and dropped the side of it that they felt would arouse the least public protest.
After that, there were various races run outside the aegis of the men’s Tour: the Tour of the EEC, the Tour Cycliste Féminin and the Grande Boucle Féminine, although by the time the latter closed, one of the last winners, Emma Pooley, said it was more of a Petite Boucle.
Given the level of scrutiny driven by social media, it is hard to see Amaury Sport Organisation treating their relaunched race as casually as they did their last attempt. In hindsight, the 1980s race was constrained by being run alongside the men’s event; in the future, it will be fascinating to see how they build an identity for the relaunched race, how far and how fast the organisers venture into the Alps and Pyrenees, and whether and how they build the race’s duration. But a look at next week’s route underlines the immediate value of running the Tour de France Femmes separately from the men’s event.
There is one marathon stage at 176.5km, while the heavy-duty climbing is deferred until what should be a climactic final weekend through Alsace over the Grand Ballon, the Ballon d’Alsace and Le Markstein; prior to that the route gets progressively hillier as the week goes on. The organisers have included finish circuits around three of the venues, and stage four to Bar-sur-Aube includes four gravel vineyard tracks which should be to the liking of Vos, the current world cyclo-cross champion. All this points to a race which should develop its own identity as the sport builds further around it.
The final weekend points to an eventual duel between the Giro d’Italia winner Annemiek van Vleuten and this season’s discovery Marta Cavalli. Behind them, the field is strong enough to promise some intense battles for stage wins between the likes of Vos – a double stage winner in the Giro – the Ride London winner Demi Vollering, her fellow Dutch sprinter Lorena Wiebes, the current world champion Elisa Balsamo, and the Women’s Tour winner Elisa Longo-Borghini.
