Everyone wants it – Tour de France Femmes hailed as big moment for cycling

After years of waiting there is less than a month left until the start of the Tour de France Femmes.

A women’s edition of cycling’s biggest race has been top of the wish-list for many riders for a long time, and it will be granted when the peloton sets off from Paris on July 24th – the final day of the men’s race – reaching a climax on La Planches des Belles Filles a week later.

There have been tokenistic attempts, not least the much criticised La Course held alongside the Tour in recent years, but it has taken until now for a proper eight-day women’s Tour to be born.

“As a cyclist people always ask you, ‘Are you doing the Tour de France?’” former British champion Alice Barnes, a rider for Canyon-SRAM, told the PA news agency. “You’d have to say no and explain it’s because there isn’t one.”

Tour organisers ASO have needed some persuading despite the gripes around La Course, but sponsorship from virtual cycling platform Zwift has pushed things forward. The company partnered with ASO on the introduction of a women’s Paris-Roubaix last season and is now behind the Tour de France Femmes.

La Course, won by Lizzie Deignan in 2020, attracted a loaded field but also plenty of complaints, too often feeling like an afterthought and failing to get proper promotion as the opportunity to capitalise on having the world’s attention during the Tour was squandered.

“La Course was great but it felt like they didn’t want to do it, that they had to do it,” Alice’s elder sister Hannah, another former British champion who rides for Uno-X, said. “I think with this, everyone wants it – the organisers, ASO, the UCI. It’s great for Zwift to step up like they have.”

La Course was not the only attempt to fill the void. Back in 1955 there was the