Female cyclists demand their own Tour de France - Women's Agenda

Female cyclists demand their own Tour de France

Four female British cyclists have launched a petition calling for a women’s Tour de France following Chris Froome’s win of the men’s race to become Britain’s second consecutive champion, collecting prize money worth £387,000 ($643,380) in the process.

British former world champion and Olympic medallist Emma Pooley, Dutch Olympic road race champion Marianne Vos, US cyclist Kathryn Bertine and UK ironman triathlete Chrissie Wellington have collected 62,683 signatures so far, calling for race organisers, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), to allow women to be on the starting line of the 101st Tour de France next year.

The petition states that after a century, “it’s about time women are allowed to race the Tour de France too”.

“While many women’s sports face battles of inequity, road cycling remains one of the worst offenders: fewer race opportunities, no televised coverage, shorter distances and therefore salary and prize money inequity,” the petition states.

“We seek not to race against the men, but to have our own professional field running in conjunction with the men’s event, at the same time, over the same distances, on the same days, with modifications in start/finish times so neither gender’s race interferes with the other.”

While current cycling rules prevent women from riding as far as men in a single stage, Pooley is calling for women to ride the same courses as the men do each day.

Although Wellington is arguing that race organisers would make more money from running men’s and women’s races alongside one another, UK double Olympic champion Laura Trott believes not enough thought has been put into calls for a women’s Tour and rather, the focus should be on getting television coverage for the women’s races that already exist.

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