Are women allowed to ride in the Tour/Giro?

[SCurve]

I am so curious if anyone knows whether women can officially compete in major tours like the Tour de France or the Giro d'italia?

Are there major professional cycling teams with women on them, or made up entirely of women riders?

[gingerale]

Great questions. I was wondering about this recently and found this info online:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grande_Boucle

Not sure about women teams, etc., but I hope someone else has the answer. Here's the official site link for the race but I don't speak French, unfortunately. lol

http://www.velo-feminin.com/

[maillotpois]

I am so curious if anyone knows whether women can officially compete in major tours like the Tour de France or the Giro d'italia?

No.

Are there major professional cycling teams with women on them, or made up entirely of women riders?

Yes, many. They have their own events separate from men's races, including longer tours such as the Tour de France Feminin.

[TxDoc]

I am so curious if anyone knows whether women can officially compete in major tours like the Tour de France or the Giro d'italia?

Are there major professional cycling teams with women on them, or made up entirely of women riders?

There is a "giro donna" that is exactly the giro for women's teams, and a "TdF feminin" aka the TdF for women's teams. You can see:
http://www.girodonne.it
http://www.velo-feminin.com

[Jiffer]

Well, I know there were women doing cycling events at the olympics. I saw a women's time trial and MTB race. I'm guessing there were other women's cycling events, but I didn't see them.

I've been wondering what women events were out there as well. I'll check out those links.

[Eden]

Of course there are major women's cycling teams! and there are major women's races. You just don't see much of them covered in the media.......

Here in the US most races, except for the big stage races (Tour de Georgia, Tour of California etc.) will have a women's field that pro, cat 1 and cat 2 riders can race in. My team has sent riders to the Nature Valley Grand Prix, Mt Hood Cycling Classic, the Cascade Classic, Redlands, etc.

I think that some of the bigger races in Europe will also have women's and amateur racing, we just don't hear about it. Check out famous women cyclists on the wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Female_cyclists

Really - I'm not sure that there are any *specific* rules that say a woman could not race with the men in a Grand Tour....... if a Pro Tour team decided to pick up a woman rider and race her with the men.... I somehow don't see it happening though. We can race with the men as amateurs if we choose. Sometimes I see the stronger women do it for the challenge.