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Until recently, it was the question elite women cyclists dreaded: "Do you ride in the Tour de France?"
"Whenever I talk to people who don't know much about cycling, they always ask me if I've raced the Tour de France," Australian cyclist Neve Bradbury says.
"Until three years ago, I had to say 'no we don't actually have one'. But now I'm going to be able to say I've raced it, which is really cool. It's a huge step forward for women's racing."
The women's version of the iconic race has a chequered history, marred by decades of sexist disregard that mirrors the gendered disparity in cycling more broadly.
While the men's event was established in 1903, it wasn't until 2022 that the current iteration of the women's race — the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (TdFFaZ) — was launched.
It's not exactly the 'first' women's Tour de France (TdF). A one-off event was held in 1955, while there have been various attempts to establish something akin to the men's race (under different names) from 1984-2009.
None of these came close to emulating the three-week men's event, and after years in the wilderness, four of the biggest names in women's cycling resorted to guerilla tactics to force the race's governing body — Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) — to take notice.
In 2013, they formed an activist group called 'Le Tour Entier' (the whole tour), releasing a manifesto, and garnering over 100,000 signatures on a petition to establish a women's TdF, before they were rewarded with a single day event called 'La Course'.
Once again, it fell well short of the pomp of the men's TdF, and women were left wondering if they would ever reach the heights of Alpe d'Huez.
It's a situation Kate Veronneau, director of women's strategy at Zwift, says would be unthinkable in other sports.
“The way I put it is, can you imagine where women’s tennis would be today if they didn’t play Grand Slams?" Veronneau said.
“In 2021, we weren’t playing in the Grand Slam of cycling.
"The Tour de France is one of the most watched annual sporting events in the world, and one of the most valuable landscapes in sport… and women weren't there."
So why, in 2022, did women's cycling finally get the Tour it deserved, and what more needs to change?
How a pandemic heralded the arrival of the Tour de France Femmes
Veronneau knows first-hand the frustration of being a woman in elite cycling.
Before taking on the role at Zwift, her own cycling career was cut short by a lack of professional opportunities for women.
"Cycling is one of the worst offenders when it comes to gender disparity," Veronneau says.
"It's a very old, historically male-dominated sport. And it has taken a while to come into the modern era."
Strangely enough, she credits the COVID-19 pandemic with creating the conditions that enabled the TdFFaZ to emerge.
In 2020, with most in-person races paused, Zwift ran a 'virtual' Tour de France on their platform, embedding gender equality into the coverage.
The event was broadcast on Eurosport, across 130 countries, with footage switching between the men's and women's races on a daily basis.
Presented in this manner, the women's race drew almost equal viewership to the men's.
It was this success story that enabled Zwift to start a conversation with ASO about sponsoring a (non-virtual) women's Tour.
"I think it's a good lesson in the way tech and innovation can change sport," Veronneau says.
"We built a virtual cycling world, and in doing that, we kind of disrupted things. We didn't have to do things the way they had historically been done. We could play by our own rules, which we decided was going to be parity and equal opportunity.
"We wanted to make cycling more accessible and inclusive, because it hasn't always been."
An ‘absolute game changer’ for women in cycling
In 2022, the TdFFaZ was born, with riders finishing a stage on the renowned Champs-Élysées on the morning of the men's final.
The event succeeded even its most ardent supporters' expectations, with an accumulated live audience of 23.2 million, and over 100 million viewed hours.
In France, a benchmark was set to have 12 per cent of TVs tuning in on a daily basis. The final figure was over double that, at 26 per cent, while 44 per cent of all French TVs tuned in for the final stage.
Veronnea calls it an "absolute game changer" for women's cycling.
As she explains it, the teams competing in the men's TdF accumulate approximately 80 per cent of their sponsorship value from three weeks of prime time exposure.
Without the same visibility, Veronneau argues that it has been impossible for women to create a "commercially viable" product.
The financial discrepancy is hard to dispute.
The average budget of a men's World Tour team is USD 28 million, compared to 3.8 million for women.
The average elite male cyclist, meanwhile, earns USD 450,000, while the average elite woman earns 85,000.
| Men (USD) | Women (USD) | |
|---|---|---|
| Average budget of World Tour team | 28 million | 3.8 million |
| Average salary for individual (elite) cyclist | 450,000 | 85,000 |
But after the first edition of the TdFFaZ, the top women's riders "immediately" earned 10 per cent more.
"It has changed their opportunities, salaries, and more investors want to get behind teams and behind races," she says.
Veronneau is also hopeful of a flow-on effect for women who aren't at the pointy end.
As it stands, in the second tier of women's cycling, there is no mandated minimum salary (with one set to be introduced in 2025).
That means there are a number of women competing in 2024's TdFFaZ who are not getting paid.
As Veronneau puts it, they may be lucky to get "flights and bikes" paid for, but that's it.
"It's a very hard life," she says.
"A lot of them have second jobs and have to be supported by family members."
Australian debutant Neve Bradbury hopes Tour brings more exposure
When 154 cyclists embark on the 2024 edition of the TdFFaZ this week, it will mark the first time the event has stood alone from the men's race.
With the Olympics wrapping up in Paris, and the Paralympics to come, the event will start in Rotterdam, Netherlands, before wrapping up, after one week and eight stages, on the famous backdrop of Alpe D'Huez.
Among the riders will be 22-year-old debutant Bradbury, who secured her place in the Canyon/SRAM team after a breakout performance at the Giro d'Italia — one of cycling's most prestigious races — last month.
Bradbury, a Melbournian who spent her junior days racing with St Kilda Cycling Club, finished third in the General Classification and won the exceptionally difficult 'Queen' stage (123km in length, with an elevation of 3700m).
Having made a name for herself on the Blockhaus mountain range, Bradbury is most looking forward to the notorious French climb that will round out this year's event.
"I think the scenes on Alpe D'Huez will be insane," she says.
"The crowds will hopefully be insane too, and it'll be the last day, so hopefully we'll be able to soak it up a bit."
While the current iteration of TdFFaZ is eight days long, making it the longest women's Tour yet, Bradbury hopes the race eventually grows to two weeks.
"I'd like to see it be two weeks long with a rest day," she says.
"I'm quite good at the longer races, so it'd suit me. But three weeks [like the men] is a long time. I'd be happy with two."
More importantly, Bradbury hopes the event drives greater exposure for women's cycling.
"We just need more coverage," she says.
"At the moment, there seems to be one hour of coverage per race compared to the whole men's race being live-streamed. So we're still a bit behind, but it's definitely getting better.
"I think the more attention the better, and that's what the Tour de France does. If you're ever going to watch a race, it would probably be the Tour de France. That means more viewers, more brands wanting to sponsor these events and riders and so on.
"It's a domino effect."