tour reporter
Drivers, teams and organizers celebrate the Tour de France Femmes as a great success. Women’s cycling has never had such a big stage. The attention should have a long-term effect.
After they also up the last difficult ramp after La Super Planche des Belles Filles had managed Annemiek van Vleuten finally name the historical dimension of their actions. “I’m super proud to be the first winner of the Tour de France to be for women”she said and beamed with her yellow jersey. “I hope we can make this most important race in sport even bigger for the women too.”
The riders, the teams and the organizers all take this hope with them after these eight remarkable days, which far exceeded the expectations of the women’s peloton. Van Vleuten, for example, was more of a skeptic before the start of the race: there was a huge one hype about the race, she said the day before Stage 1 in Paris. But now it is the task of the drivers to make the race attractive.
A tour of its own, not just an accessory
She herself then delivered the big show on the two mountain stages on the final weekend and is now the first winner of the Tour de France women into history. “It exceeded my expectations. I really felt like we were part of the Tour de France, not some men’s accessory.”said van Vleuten.
The fear that the race only on the first day Champs Elysees would attract a lot of attention in Paris, because you would appear there as a kind of support act for the big final concert of the men, many within the women’s peloton had. “We were all a bit concerned that there might not be that many spectators after Paris”said Ina-Yoko Teutenberg, Sport Director of the Trek-Segafredo team.
The fear was unfounded. In fact, spectators flocked to the start and finish locations to cheer on the women cyclists. Unlike the men, there were no corona restrictions either. The audience could walk freely between the team buses and get close to the drivers. Along the route, too, people waited patiently for the advertising caravan and the field.
“There were so many spectators, the atmosphere was great. Sometimes we didn’t even understand what we were saying.”Lisa Brennauer, who has been a professional cyclist for 12 years now, was amazed at a completely new experience. “And it doesn’t matter whether you’re chasing the stage win or you’re 15 minutes behind – people were there, celebrating us, celebrating the sport. It’s hard to put into words: goosebumps.”
The Tour de France Femmes sets new standards
Women’s cycling has won many prestigious races in recent years. And there are races – like that Giro d’Italia – which have long been of great importance to women. the Tour de France women but has now managed to rise to the most important event in the calendar, as with the men. “It’s a race with such a big history, with such a great past. Somehow it was clear to everyone that it was going to be really, really, really big.”said Brennauer.
The race has set new standards for women’s cycling, agrees Ronny Lauke, the team boss of the German World Tour teams Canyon/SRAM. Starting with hotels, accreditations and parking tickets, everything was super organized. “It’s just a completely new level that we haven’t had in this form before”said Lauke.
the Amaury Sports Organization (ASO), owner of the brand Tour de France, has taken on the women’s tour with all its marketing power. With success – not only at the track the encouragement was great. The French broadcaster France 3who broadcast the race live, reported amazing ratings: 2.7 million people watched the king’s stage on Saturday (07/30/22) as Annemiek van Vleuten took over the race. A rate of 30.8 percent.
The ASO is the key
It took a while before the ASO was ready to take on women’s cycling. The Dutch woman Marianne Vos was with the men’s tour director ten years ago, Christian Prudhommecame forward to pitch the idea of a women’s tour to him. Vos knew that the ASO, as the most powerful institution in cycling, would be key to helping women’s cycling gain more visibility.
“She was right, but we also had to wait for women’s cycling to structure itself to be able to do that”said Marion Roussethe race director of the Tour de France women. “I think we got the right year. When you see the result, when you see the races that the girls give us, when you see the people on the side of the road, the ratings – you tell yourself it was right to wait a little longer.”
The beginning has now been made. Within women’s cycling, they are now hoping for a lasting boost through the newly won attention. “Women’s cycling has definitely won through this tour”believes Ina-Yoko Teutenberg. Canyon/SRAM-Team boss Ronny Lauke says his team has received more inquiries than ever before in the past few days, and not only from media that deal specifically with cycling: “It’s a huge step for us. It draws so much attention to the sport, it’s a whole new level.”
The newly gained attention should now also be reflected economically as far as possible. “I think it was a great impetus for great development in the years to come.”said Lisa Brennauer. “Something like that also attracts sponsors again. That’s what we need, the media presence, the finances so that the infrastructure can be further expanded, the bike races can get bigger.”
Only minor changes for 2023
How big the Tour de France women can still be? That was also an issue again and again on the fringes of the race. Shouldn’t the women also be on the road for three weeks, should they compete in the Alps and Pyrenees? However, these debates were mainly conducted outside of the peloton. “It comes from people who don’t know their way around, who don’t know that we only have twelve or 13 riders in the team and that our program is already full.”says the German champion Liane Lippert. “It makes no sense to do this for more than eight days.”
Women’s cycling is not ready for a three-week tour. The race director sees that too Marion Rousse so. At the moment, the format of eight race days is the right one, she thinks. At most there will be changes to the route, a time trial may be added. One is already quite far in terms of the route in the coming year. “The most important thing is that it’s a real one Tour de France is”said Rousse. On October 27th, the routes for men and women will be presented in Paris. For the most important cycling race in the world, which is now also available for women.