With the men's Tour De France coming to it's final conclusion tomorrow in Paris the women's Tour started today which will finish next Sunday having completed 9 stages. Not as long as the 21 stage male race ,but at least the female race has got this far which is a big thing considering 10 years ago there were so many high ranking cycling officials against this concept.
Back in 2015 UCI Chairman Brian Cookson said that females could not be capable of physically completing 21 stages. Would sponsors support women's cycling like they do the men's teams and the idea of running an event with women at the same time of the men's edition would make a logistical nightmare. These were all genuine concerns back then and those thoughts have since changed 10 years on.
My thoughts are if you want to grow the sport of cycling or any sport you need to add a women's addition because you will get a new type of fan supporting those events which will add new interest spilling over into the sport. Sports have mainly been male dominated with women making up the numbers and somewhat secondary. We have seen the rise of women's sport over the last 5 years and it is still in it's infancy and only time will tell if it becomes mainstream. i love my sport and will watch female sports if there is nothing else, but will not go out of my way to watch it. I would never pay to go and watch a live event and I guess most males would think and feel the same.
The money is there for the Tour De France Femmes for the 9 stages and possibly not for the 21 stages and why it is a shortened event. 22 teams of 7 riders each with a total prize pool of €264,152 which is just on 10% of what the male Tour De France pays out.
One has to be realistic and one cannot justify paying the women more as the revenue justifies the prize pool. If the women's race was losing bucket loads of cash it would seize to exist and the prize pool is all related to the revenue.
The Tour De Femmes is still the richest female bicycle race in the world and this year there are 2 flat, 2 medium mountain, 3 hilly and 2 mountain stages, but these stages are much shorter than the men's race. The total distance covered over the 9 stages is 1165km which is the longest thus far over the 5 editions of this race.
The Tour De Femmes as a race was around in 2014-2019 more as a day race and not a multi day event. The multi day Tour edition started in 2019 and has slowly expanded to 9 days of consecutive racing. I do not think this will expand into a full three weeks because the revenue is not there and the race cannot charge the same for sponsorships as the male race can. Towns hosting starts and finishes would not pay the same numbers as the men's edition and this is just the reality.
The race has 40 sponsors with one major title sponsor so this could be grown as a testing ground due to it being cheaper for sponsors testing to see if the sport is worthwhile before becoming a sponsor in the male Tour De France race.
Avec Swift the cycling training app is the title sponsor of the race and have sponsorship in place up until 2026. This has to make sense for Swift and only if this has boosted their sales will they continue to sponsor the event. Take Swift away and will this event still be a thing in 2027? This is not a charity and is a business so this has to make financial sense. This goes for all female sports as the revenue generated has to justify the costs and if there is no profits then it is not viable. Maybe women's basketball in the US could take a lesson in common sense and not ask for more money when the league is losing money as they are no different from being a charity right now.
Television coverage does not give the same coverage for the women's race compared to the men as the men have around 100 hours with the women around 20 hours. This effects sponsorships and why there is a big difference in prize money. Tadej Pogacar the top male cyclist earns €8.2 million per year excluding sponsorships and the highest women being Demi Vollering around €900,000 which is still very good. Those wanting pay to be the same are delusional and the race revenue has to grow if that is ever going to happen and just do not see this happening.