Women could cycle the Tour de France route, so why give them La Course?

[Flemish Lion]

There used to be a 12-day Tour de France for women which was canned cos they claimed lack of public interest even tough ASO made little effort to promote it... Progress... not at all!

 

Giro Donne is a 10 day tour with no rest days and no live coverage / poor advertisement and peanuts for prize money and UCI Points... Progress... not at all...

 

ASO must do a lot more to promote women cycling and not just let them be a side show of the men.

 

As the TdF this year has shown shorter stages are WAY more exciting... so not point to letting men / women race silly distances and needing 1-2 months to recover from such a Tour.

 

Letting men race with women... what would the point be... and why don't they apply this to all sports then?!

 

Listen to this Podcast with Ashleigh (2nd part of interview) and learn a thing or two about women cycling...

 

http://www.voxwomen.com/podcast/

['Dale]

I was so bleak AMP was recovering from injury and could not challenge for that hill top finish! Reckon that would suit her plenty!

 

 

Yip, she's pure grimpeur and showed excellence form before the latest niggle

[Shebeen]

Obviously women wouldn't be able to compete in the same category as men.

There's plenty of cycling races where they start together and they won't find the top 10% of the results. Even opening up this point is just futile.

 

Which is why La Course is excellent. Women's pro cycling is growing incredibly well, some would say it should be quicker but it can't be denied that including them in a 3 day event is a good step in the right direction. Remember prior to 2014 there was NOTHING.

 

Here is the women's world tour for 2018

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-womens-worldtour-expands-to-23-events-in-2018/

23 events!

 

was great to see Orica Scott give their ladies team coverage too

[Shebeen]

My take on this is that all sports should do away with male and female divisions and just have one open section.No male and female prize money but just 1st,2nd and 3rd placings.Lets see how long that lasts and how happy the athletes will be.Yes'they could ride the race but could they RACE it with the times of the men.

 

Maybe it's just me but i see that in 30 years down the line women will compete against the men.

it's just you

[Pure Savage]

If ASO/UCI do not want to back the women, the teams should approach Velon. If there is a market for it, it will succeed. 

[SwissVan]

My take on this is that all sports should do away with male and female divisions and just have one open section.No male and female prize money but just 1st,2nd and 3rd placings.Lets see how long that lasts and how happy the athletes will be.Yes'they could ride the race but could they RACE it with the times of the men.

 

Maybe it's just me but i see that in 30 years down the line women will compete against the men.

My wife already beats me at golf, now this helps my cause because if she tee'd off from the men's tee then I might have a chance.....

[Vetplant]

If ASO/UCI do not want to back the women, the teams should approach Velon. If there is a market for it, it will succeed. 

I like this approach.

 

Le Tour has had over 100 years to build a loyal following. You are not going to get the sponsorship revenue for a three week La Course within two years. It is going to take time to establish this. 

 

I liked the fact that they used the same stages that the men raced during the tour. I think they should expand this model and get the ladies to do more and more of the stages each year until the interest is big enough to eventually create their own event. 

 

You would struggle to compete for coverage with the main Tour going on, so placing these events should be done during the men's Rest Days or before the men kick off for the day. This might mean shortening the stages for the men, which would be more exciting anyways.

 

Fact is, someone needs to think of the business case hear because TV revenue is ultimately what will determine whether someone will put the effort in to get this show on the road.

[eddy]

The logistics and disruption to the traffic on the route are significant so unless there is a very good business case it will be difficult to run a separate three week race at a different time.

 

However, the entire route around where I was last year was closed from first thing in the morning and remained that way until after the last cyclists and support vehicles had passed so perhaps running the race over all or part of the mens course before the men get there would be a workable solution.

 

Let the women initially do, say the middle ten days of the tour, starting 50 km ahead of the men and say 2 hours before them so that there is no chance of any of them getting caught by the men's peloton. Anybody 30 minutes from being caught is removed from the race.  

 

The roads are closed and available, the media is there, the crowds are there and the marginal cost would be reasonable so the business case becomes much easier to sustain.

 

The only problem is TV viewership. Would we watch the last 50km of the women's race if the men were two hours behind them climbing Alp D'huez?  And would the TV channels be prepared to carry both? Solve that and it becomes doable.

[100Tours]

let the women race the same route, but only 3 hrs after the men.  In this way the spectators get to watch two tours at the same time and the admin and log is not much more.

 

This is done for some of the 1-day events (ronde van vlaanderen for example), which works pretty well. the ladies come past at around 10/11am, the gents a few hours later. 

[Gen]

There used to be a 12-day Tour de France for women which was canned cos they claimed lack of public interest even tough ASO made little effort to promote it... Progress... not at all!

 

Giro Donne is a 10 day tour with no rest days and no live coverage / poor advertisement and peanuts for prize money and UCI Points... Progress... not at all...

 

ASO must do a lot more to promote women cycling and not just let them be a side show of the men.

 

As the TdF this year has shown shorter stages are WAY more exciting... so not point to letting men / women race silly distances and needing 1-2 months to recover from such a Tour.

 

Letting men race with women... what would the point be... and why don't they apply this to all sports then?!

 

Listen to this Podcast with Ashleigh (2nd part of interview) and learn a thing or two about women cycling...

 

http://www.voxwomen.com/podcast/

Ja but look at the dates of the ladies Giro... and the UCI refuse to move it..

 

Sometimes is think they just started La course to be able to say "check you got a big event be thankful and shut up now."

 

We've all seen the ladies race.. they hammer it, very entertaining...they deserve more.

 

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[gummibear]

Obviously women wouldn't be able to compete in the same category as men.

 

How dare you sat that?It's sexist and discriminatory and will offend people  

 

They want the same prize money and sponsorship deals but only way to get that will be to race with and against the men.

[coppi]

It would definitely make the Grand Tours much more interesting to watch 

 

The whole show is already there, add 2 female riders to each existing team and let them start 1 hour after the men, not all 21 stages though.........maybe 10

[Shebeen]

How dare you sat that?It's sexist and discriminatory and will offend people  

 

They want the same prize money and sponsorship deals but only way to get that will be to race with and against the men.

in the event that you're actually being serious with this train of thought, let's lower it a few notches

 

 

[T-Bob]

ASO are a commercial, traditional organisation that just want to create profit. Currently they haven't worked out how womens cycling will create a profit and how they can profit from expanding female side of the sport. 
 

The more interesting and successful races this year on the womens circuit were the ones that weren't owned by ASO and currently the theory is that La Course is a 'gift' for the ladies and that is the prevalent attitude. 

 

I hope someone can shake up the view point and take a chance rather then seeing it as as revenue loss. They should look at the growth of womens surfing from 10 years ago and how taking a chance on it from industry players like Quicksilver launching Roxy brand and Billabong following with their womens brand have opened up a massive market, increased sales and as a result womens surfing has grown. Womens Tennis is also a good example as how to get a interest in a global sport on par with the mens.

Womens cycling shouldn't look to follow and ape the guys, they don't need to try to compete and are currently in a position where they can define how they position and shape their sport because they have largely been abandoned in the last 5 - 6 years as they have lost endless events. It's been ex riders and team owners like Rochelle Gilmore of Wiggle Honda that have started to get traction, interest and forged new some event in the last 2 seasons. But much like the guys they need to sort out their team models, finances and sponsor models so riders get looked after, teams can pay wages and a future model can be formed. 

Womens cycling shouldn't look to mens cycling, a lot of the time it's more active and less formulaic than the guys and that is a plus. UK cycling events and the womens tour there is a great example of a successful, well attended, valuable event for riders, sponsors and followers... with equal prize money as well. The irony is that british cycling authorities and the premiere 'british team' have blatantly failed to develop the female side of the sport. 

[Gen]

How dare you sat that?It's sexist and discriminatory and will offend people

 

They want the same prize money and sponsorship deals but only way to get that will be to race with and against the men.

I don't see the ladies tennis players playing against the men and they earn the same prize money at some events?[emoji53]

 

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[EmJayZA]

How dare you sat that?It's sexist and discriminatory and will offend people  

 

They want the same prize money and sponsorship deals but only way to get that will be to race with and against the men.

 

There is a long history of female athletes being underpaid, even when their viewership numbers are higher than the men's. Your statement is generalizing and unnecessary. 

 

I recently took up cycling, and when I started looking at female cycling, I was shocked to see how badly represented women are. It's a pretty sad state of affairs. I wouldn't turn to current events, but look at corporates and potential sponsors to help fill the gap. A company such as Liv is perfectly placed and would get a lot of attention.