Tour de Egalite

[The Couch]

Well, the new Tour of Britain organisers are doing the right thing immediately: there will be a five-day women's Tour of Britain from 2014 with the same prize money as the men's. Now, if Britain, with all its relative lack of cycling culture can do this, explain to us again, those who are opposed, why countries which have a deeper cycling culture, cannot...

Whooowww..... Belgian (Flemish) races also have a woman's version

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Well, the new Tour of Britain organisers are doing the right thing immediately: there will be a five-day women's Tour of Britain from 2014 with the same prize money as the men's. Now, if Britain, with all its relative lack of cycling culture can do this, explain to us again, those who are opposed, why countries which have a deeper cycling culture, cannot...

To be fair, though there's no women's TdF at the moment, there is the Route de France going on right now. I support Sweetspot's 5-day initiative but the UK's not really far from playing catch up. Over in the pays des chauvins, Bronzini (Wiggle-Honda) has just won the 1st and 2nd stages. And I wouldn't rule her out for the 3rd and final stage either.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

To be fair, though there's no women's TdF at the moment, there is the Route de France going on right now.

Which has nothing to do with ASO or the Tour, which is the point, and women's cycling in France has been in so much trouble this year that in some races riders did not even know on the start day whether they would be happening or not...

 

[VamP]

I think oldroadman was being sarcastic to the person who suggested that the women should race the men? I was equally blunt to someone who made the same suggestion on another forum - and I'm female...

Could anyone give a rough indication of how much slower elite women are than elite men? I haven't actually tried to find out myself - I think it could be quite difficult as they almost never race over the same courses. Something like 25 mile TT times might give an idea, but I don't know if the elites do something like that very much.

(To emphasise, I am talking about elite athletes here. I know that I can do triathlons and running races faster than some men, but that does not follow up to the elite end of the sport!)

Obviously this is an isolated example and only intended to illustrate somewhat, but Laura Trott rode in E,1, 2, 3 cat men's race at Elveden this spring, and although it was mainly cats 2s and 3s she finished mid-pack. She rode in a women's race earlier the same day, and dropped the pack on lap 1, and rode to a solo victory by around 10 minutes, so there is vast gulf between amateur women and professional women, and I believe that there is an even vaster gulf between professional women and professional men.

She might have been fatigued by the afternoon, although both races were 1 hour long crit format, and I would expect someone with the volume of training that Laura does to not have fatigued that much.

 

[Noodley]

There is a very good article by Graham Fife in Rouleur (not sure if current or last but one edition) about women's cycling in case anyone is interested, which provides details of UCI initiative to promote women's cycling, and a couple of other interviews.

 

[oldroadman]

The "empty calendar in Britain" is a red herring. The Women's 5-Day (whatever it ends up being called) is most certainly NOT a "Tour of Britain", as according to information around, it will be confined to the eastern counties and north of London. I suppose that if a good major sponsor comes in they will get title rights. As the race will be a UCI calendar event, fitting a vacant slot in the calendar is important, because they obviously want the best riders possible, and that means steering clear of race dates in Europe at least. Not so simple because there are quite a few Belgian/Dutch races, added to the few French ones, and the pool of better riders is small, not like men who have the three divisions and large team rosters so it's possible to have two or three programmes running, and races can slot n according to ranking. Even the ToB (2.1) clashes with the end of La Vuelta (GT), which illustrates the differences between calendar planning for men and women. Given the right status a team such as SKY, OPQS, etc, can easily run teams in both to a high standard. There are simply not enough women at that standard (yet), so planning for top events is quite tricky regarding dates.
Phew!! Think I'd better get off on the bike