Tour de France is men only-how is that justified?

[happydappy2]

How depressing that in 2018 the Tour de France is only open to men-there is no female race.....what signals does that send children growing up in our society? I’m not a keen cyclist so have only just read about the 13 women who cycle the same route a day ahead of the real race (with traffic on the roads) to prove that women are able to compete. As the roads aren’t closed they have to stop at red lights & contend with pollution washing over them. Inspirational but also shocking.

Wow. I was going to say you must be wrong but it seems not.

How unfair.

Particularly depressing given that there were women's equivalents that have died off over time.

In my grumpier moments I think that sports organisations (and all schools/colleges/universities etc) should be forced by law/rules to spend as much on women's sport as they do on men's, at every level including promotion and publicity.

www.telegraph.co.uk/cycling/2018/07/25/day-riders-making-strong-case-revival-womens-tour-de-france/

From Saturday's Daily Telegraph. This newspaper, contrary to what some might imagine as it is thought to be conservative, is extremely supportive of women's sport and carries more reports and op ed pieces about the need for parity in coverage, money etc. than any other.

DH and I were talking about this last night, they were showing Geraint Thomas's old cycling club on the news, and there was a girl there who was so excited and talking about how she would love to be as successful as him and win the Tour de France etc. And we realised that there is no women's tour.

I really don't see why not? It could be shorter, have different stages or whatever, but I don't get why there isn't one?

Hang on. Surely it’s okay for a woman to merely say she is male in 2018 and be accepted as male? No? Wouldn’t that be enough to get them riding alongside those other males.?

According to the telegraph piece, women did used to be able to participate:
'Women have not been able to ride the same Tour as the men since the 1980s, when the female Tour de France become gradually more and more diluted before being phased out'

What happened?

Hmm

There is no cash in women's cycling. It's not just that but like women's football it does not attract the crowds. There are women who could no doubt do the distance Nicole Cooke would have been fab, there have been outstanding British long distance riders including Chrissie Wellington known for "chicking" male triathletes and getting an overall second for example in the Alpe d'Hues tri (never mind unbeaten Ironman world championships).
I can't see why there can't be a two hour staggered start and a women's tour go through after the men's but people say who would finance it. There is little taste for women's cycling, it's goin to gome down to the money.

It would be easy to do a women's race. Just get them to set off 15 mins after the men. The roads are already closed. The infrastructure is all in place. It would be very easy to organise.

On another point it is very annoying when a whole day is disrupted by a men's sporting event. Our local roads were shut for 6 hours. We were completely blocked. Many local shops lost a whole day's trading (the Saturday of the beginning of the summer hols). It was a right pain in the backside.

It's a vicious circle.

"The sport" (mostly men) say there is no appetite for women's events.
So they don't show/publicisie/promote women's events.
So there is no chance for the appetite to be built up.
So "the sport" say "See? No appetite for women's events..."

It's the same in most sports, although I am glad to see some are starting to break free of this bullshit - lots of comments womens football and cricket recently, for example.

(It's also the same with the kit as well - offer "pink and shrink it" versions only and then say there's no demand for anything else....)

Remember when Lily Madigan was protesting about the Race for Life only being open to women, comparing it to apartheid-era South Africa?

Has Lily graced us with her thoughts on the Tour de France excluding women? After all, as a woman, it's something that must be very distressing for her. Surely she must have said something?

women's football it does not attract the crowds.

It used to in the early 20th century before the FA effectively shut it down. I've been reading a bit about it recently after noticing a blue plaque on a factory wall in my area celebrating the Dick, Kerr Ladiess* team.

'The popularity of the team led the Football Association (FA) to ban women's football at its members grounds on 5 December 1921. Ostensibly, this was due of concerns that women were not physically able to play football, however, it is widely purported that the popularity of the team threatened the men's game. The crowds at the Dick, Kerr Ladies matches were often bigger than men's games being played on the same day. Less than a year after a match played before 53,000 fans packed into Goodison Park, the Dick, Kerr's Ladies, as well as all the other women's teams that had been established in England, lost their official recognition by the FA.'

There was a great documentary fairly recently (during the women's World Cup) about women's football being banned by the FA on C4. It might be on the on demand service.

I messed up my link
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick,Kerr'ssLadiesF.C.

Look at the upsurge in attendance for women's hockey (and other sports):

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/hockey/43298722

Biologyisreal thanks for the link to the piece in The Telegraph. If only all the male riders who have the opportunity to race insisted on there also being a womens race....after all-they presumably have Mothers/sisters/daughters....its almost shameful imho.

I really don't see why not? It could be shorter, have different stages or whatever, but I don't get why there isn't one?

There used to be: but it struggled a lot. Lack of participants; and lack of viewers - but I think the former was the biggest issue.

Was there enough riders who did the day ride to open a new women's ride?

It's symptomatic of the wider problem. There's less women cyclists because there's less support for it, and less grass root events and clubs that would get you to the TdF level. So there's low participants, low viewers, and we go round in a big circle.

Did anyone hear the radio play about Beryl Burton a few years ago?

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryl_Burton

I reckon Yorkshire - which has many painted bikes, bike-themed cafes etc - should start a women's Tour de Yorkshire.

I reckon Yorkshire - which has many painted bikes, bike-themed cafes etc - should start a women's Tour de Yorkshire.

Eh? There is akready a Tour de Yorkshire, and there's a women's race.
I know almost nothing about cycling and I knew that.
letour.yorkshire.com/the-race/

There already is a Women's Tour de Yorkshire, it happened on 3rd and 4th May of this year.

Many of the professional grand tour road races have women's events (such the Giro in Italy and Vuelta in Spain). Admittedly like Le Tour de France they are only 1 or 2 day stages not the whole course, but they will only get more popular (and hopefully longer) if enough people demand to see coverage.

I watched all the highlights coverage of the men's Le Tour this year (on ITV) and they actually showed the women's race as well when that was on.

Technically there is a women's stage.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_La_Course_by_Le_Tour_de_France
But it's only one stage and they change the route slightly. Which is shite.
We saw the ladies who were riding in Paris arrive on Saturday.

However there is The Woman's Tour which is a multi stage event held in the UK www.womenstour.co.uk which has had lots of coverage and gets a highlights show on itv4 like the Tour de France.

It's symptomatic of the wider problem. There's less women cyclists because there's less support for it, and less grass root events and clubs that would get you to the TdF level. So there's low participants, low viewers, and we go round in a big circle.

See in other sports I can see this (especially stuff like formula 1) but I thought in cycling there were loads of girls interested. When people like Geraint Thomas (whose old coach was a woman), Laura Trott (whose old club is local to me and I know girls who go there) and Bradley Wiggins old clubs have been shown the news etc there are always girls on there participating. And after the Olympic successes of Laura Trott, Victoria Pendleton etc I thought that cycling was one of the sports where there was actually quite high female participation?

On the other hand I think there might be quite a lot of misogyny in cycling, which would probably be quite off putting.

The tour de Yorkshire has the women riding the same route as the men, but a few hours before. It worked well from my point of view as a spectator.

Read any of the female cyclists' biographies and you will see just how endemic sexism is in cycling. I tweeted the Guardian to ask them to justify why they hardly ever cover women's sports - they didn't reply.

Nicole Cooke was busy being world champion and still had to schlepps her own bike places when the men were lifted and laid, despite being completely crap in comparison.

Oh! Apologies for my ignorance (sorry, I'm over t'border) but glad I posted anyway, delighted to hear that!

How many womens sporting events (cycling, rugby, football, hockey, netball etc) have you attended in the last 12 months?