There’s plenty to be excited about in cycling for women, another massive step in the big department of the E-word: exposure. Women’s cycling finally has its own Tour de France which began on Sunday 24 July 2022, it features 8 stages, containing both flat sprint and mountain top finishes, cobbles and gravel sectors, city streets and country lanes and 144 riders from 24 teams.
The brand new Tour de France Femmes is the most lucrative ever women’s cycling race, and organiser ASO has perhaps finally planted the seeds of a race that will grow and blossom for many years to come.
Reflecting on this new race Lizzie Holden, a Manx rider for the British Le Col Wahoo team says: “When I was growing up in the Isle of Man, I used to rush home from school every day to watch Mark Cavendish in the Tour de France. On Sunday, I will be riding in it myself. It’s a huge moment, for me and my sport.”
Today’s second stage of eight heads east, covering 135 kilometres between Meaux and Provins.
Dutch rider Lorena Wiebes won the first stage of the inaugural Tour de France Femmes, edging compatriot Marianne Vos in the final sprint in Paris.
“It’s amazing. The team did an amazing job,” Wiebes said.
“It was a really chaotic sprint and also a long sprint. I was quite relaxed before the start. We did everything as normal, we saw it as a normal race, but of course I was quite nervous towards the end.
“It was really close but luckily I could accelerate one more time and make it to the finish line.”
While this is a fantastic news for cycling, we cannot help but side-eye the €250,000 in prize money. It is the richest prize purse of the year for the women’s peloton, however it is so significantly less in comparison to the men’s €2.2 million prize pot.
Results: 2022 Tour de France Femmes Stage One on Sunday, 24 July
1.Lorena Wiebes (Ned/Team DSM) 1hr 54mins
2.Marianne Vos (Ned/Jumbo Visma) same time
3.Lotte Kopecky (Bel/SD Worx)
4.Rachele Barbieri (Ita/LIV Racing Xstra)
5.Emma Norsgaard (Den/Movister)
6.Maike van der Duin (Ned/Le Col-Wahoo)
7.Elisa Balsamo (Ita/Trek-Segafredo
8.Simone Boilard (Can/St-Michel Auber)
9.Tamara Dronova (Roland Cogeas Edelweiss)
10.Vittoria Guazzini (Ita/FDJ Suez Futuroscope)
Photo 1 Caption: There’s plenty to be excited about in cycling for women, another massive step in the big department of the E-word: exposure. Women’s cycling finally has its own Tour de France which began on Sunday, 24 July 2022. Photo: Tour de France Femme (Instagram)
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