On the final day of the men’s Tour de France, for the first time in over 30 years, the women’s Tour de France with Zwift kicked off in Paris. This was a historic day for the sport. Women finally get to take part in one of the biggest cycling events of the year.
The Tour de France is a major cycling race that takes place every July and features mountain climbs and time trials. It is considered as one of the most prestigious bike race of the world and, up until 2022, women did not compete in it. However, this year things are changing.
What does the 2022 women’s Tour de France consist of?
The women’s Tour de France with Zwift is a cycling race that will last eight days and travel over 600 miles or about 1033,6 km. For the first edition of this very special race, women will cross three regions and 11 ‘department’ of France. The Tour kicked off on Sunday 24 July under the Eiffel Tower in Paris. They traveled 82 kilometres around the Champs Elysées.
According to the official website of the women’s Tour de France, the race will start off relatively easy over the first two days and will become more difficult as days go on. There will be two hilly stages and two mountain stages. The latter will take place in the mountains of the Vosges where the tour will also end.
In this brand new edition of the women’s Tour de France 144 riders in 24 teams of six will compete to win this historic and prestigious race. The women’s Tour de France is an event that is bound to inspire young girls and women to do more cycling.
Not the first women’s Tour de France?
Whilst this year’s women’s Tour de France is a historic event it should not be forgotten that it is not exactly the first edition. The men’s Tour de France has had 119 editions and before today the women’s Tour de France had five. And these five editions were over 30 years ago.
Women’s cycling looked a lot different 30 years ago. Women had almost no support within the sport, something which discouraged many women from taking part. They also had no financial backing which also led to the cancellation of the women’s Tour de France all these years ago.
Between 1984 and 1989 there was 5 editions of the women’s Tour de France before it was cancelled. There were other races for women but not nearly as prestigious as the Tour de France.
Many women gave up with the sport due to the lack of representation. Furthermore if the races had been carried on it would have been bound to inspire young women to cycle. Female athletes are finally being recognised for the role models in sports that they are.
Role models for future cyclists
The men’s Tour de France is a tradition of the summer. It happens every summer and in 2021, it attracted 42 million tv viewers in France alone. There is no doubt that it is a popular event. And with this popularity comes the inspiration of many young people.
However many young girls do not see themselves represented in this race. But today with this new race things are bound to be different. Young girls will finally be inspired to cycle because they have role models that are on live TV. Furthermore the winner of the 2022 women’s Tour de France will win 250,000 euros.
This prize money is something that shows that there is finally some trust and investment in women’s sports. Women’s cycling is not the only sport where women have not always been equal to men. It is only recently that women’s rugby has started to be televised and where women don’t also have to work in order to support their sport.
But equality between men and women’s sports is still quite far off. And whilst the prize money of 250,000 euros for the women’s Tour de France might seem like it is a lot compared to the men’s it is relatively little. Indeed the winner of the men’s Tour de France received 2 million in prize money.
This new edition of the women’s Tour de France is the right step in the equality of men and women in sports and cycling. There is still a long way to go for complete equality. We can only admire the women in the Tour de France who will become role models for the young girls and women wanting to also cycle professionally.