Opinion: The Tour de France Femmes begins on historic day we’ve waited a long time for

Thirty-three years is a long time without a women’s edition of the Tour de France. It is so long, in fact, that although officially Sunday's run around Paris marked a resumption, a continuation of sorts, it was rightly treated as something entirely new. Ad/> It’s almost certainly true that none of the 144 riders who took the start of the Tour de France Femmes remember Dutch star Monique Knol’s sprint victory in 1989 across, give or take a few hundred metres, the same finish line as Lorena Wiebes.

Only 23 of them had even been born. /> Tour de France FemmesPogacar ‘already thinking about next year’ – WigginsAN HOUR AGO That Knol’s immediate successor should come from the same country is, in a way, apt, but that a women’s Tour de France is back cannot make up for the fact that it was gone for so long. It’s not that women’s bike racing was invisible or devoid of interest in that time, or that it has not grown and professionalised.

It’s that several generations of female riders were deprived of the opportunity to compete in their own version of the only bike race a sizable chunk of the general public have heard of. Eurosport’s Dani King made the point most succinctly during Sunday's broadcast: “When you tell people you’re a professional cyclist they always ask if you’ve ridden the Tour de France.” Which is why it matters that, as of today, 144 more women — including poor Alana Castrique (Cofidis) who crashed out with injury, and Petra Stiasny (Roland Cogeas Edelweiss Squad) who finished outside the time limit — can say they have. It’s about equality of opportunity, and what we witnessed was 144 professionals absolutely seizing it.