No Women In Tour De France

[kamikazejane]

Why is this????

[indysteel]

Because it's a race for male professional cyclists? There's version of the TdF for women, too. I know that may not seem like much of an answer, but it's like a lot of professional sports. There are women's teams and men's teams and sanctioned events that are specific to each.

But I'm no Tour expert or even follower; perhaps someone has a more official sounding answer than that.

[Becky]

I can't think of a single pro sport where men and women compete against one another.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_d...e_F%C3%A9minin

[jessmarimba]

I can't think of a single pro sport where men and women compete against one another.

Not pro-only, and not competing against each other, but most major long-distance running races (marathon and longer) have men and women on the same course at the same time. So I can see where it might make sense for men and women to be in the same bike races together.

That's the only sport I can think of, though.

[indysteel]

I can't think of a single pro sport where men and women compete against one another.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_d...e_F%C3%A9minin

There are women in both Indy car and Nascar who compete against men. And there are a few other sports like dressage where women and men compete against one another. But it's not the norm for sure.

[Eden]

Are you asking why there isn't a women's peleton or why there aren't simply women racing with the men?

Occasionally, very, very occasionally we have a woman around here good enough to hang with the boys. One who's probably going to turn pro just did a stage race with the guys and finished very respectfully mid pack, but even she'd be totally outclassed by the pro guys.

As far as why there isn't a women's peleton... same as why it can be hard in local racing to get women's fields. We are fewer in number, so it can be hard to turn out enough racers and there's fewer sponsors giving money and prizes and no TV rights. The organizers of racers usually don't do it for free... it's a money making enterprise, in the world of us amateurs that means if we can't get out the numbers the organizers will prefer to pass us over for a field that can. In the pros if you can't sell stuff.... advertising rights, tv rights then it's not worth their time.

[lovelygamer]

Yep, they already answered it. It's a men's race because women just can't compete at the level the men can, mostly a strength and fitness issue. Sponsors want to sponsor winners and sponsors are what it's all about. Some say, if the race was longer...women would win. That's when their real advantages and strengths come into play.

They have a few women's races like it. Here is a small non competitive one that is running this year at the same time: http://www.reve.cc/

[SadieKate]

You may not consider it a "pro sport", but do a little reading on women ultradistance runners.

[Irulan]

There are no women in ANY men's pro cycling. It's MEN'S pro cycling.

[jobob]

Every pro cyclist chosen by his team to ride in the Tour is there for a specific reason: he either excels as a sprinter, a mountain climber, a time trialist, or some combination of the above (a GC contender), or, he is strong enough to be able to support the classification contenders on the team. The support riders are arguably the strongest (Ed to add: and hardest-working!) members of the team, they're the ones who ride up at the front of the peleton and chase down the breakaways, ride back & forth to the team cars to get water and such, keep the classification contenders shielded from the wind and out of trouble, and then there's the scary-fast guys who serve as leadout for the sprinters.

I don't think a woman racer exists who is strong enough to be able to contribute in a meaningful way to the goals of the professional team that she would be representing in the Tour de France. Correct me if you think I'm wrong here. Perhaps a team without any sort of classification ambitions would consider including a woman, but imho that would simply be for publicity purposes, and I suspect the woman would not be able to finish all 21 stages within the time cut-offs; she'd likely not even make it within the time cut-offs once the race reached the high mountains. And I don't think anyone would want to see that scenario.

[SadieKate]

There are no women in ANY men's pro cycling. It's MEN'S pro cycling.

Exactly.

Off the top of my head, sports that are not gender-specific for the most part and have a professional component: equestrian, sailing, auto racing, shooting, billiards.

[kamikazejane]

It's a shame. I would think there would at least be a recognized sanctioned womens class for Tour De France.

[kamikazejane]

They have a few women's races like it. Here is a small non competitive one that is running this year at the same time: http://www.reve.cc/

That's awesome. Mucho Kuddos to them.

[pll]

Women's stage races have less stages and are much shorter (100km versus 200km per day). Right now, I am following the women's version of the Giro d'Italia, the Giro Donne. It only has 9 stages. Today is stage #8 - I linked to the coverage in a separate thread.

The Tour started with 198 riders, and last year there was some discussion about allowing less riders on the course, due to the massive crashes. Today we had another one of those crashes. Frankly, I cannot see a women's field at the same time. it would be nice if a women's field competed on the same course a day earlier.

[SadieKate]

As Indy said, there is, or at least was a TdF for women.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de...e_F%C3%A9minin

Do you think women should actually be in the same event with the men? Really?

There is a limit to the number of riders you can logistically and safely put into a race pack. The riders are already greatly at risk due to pack size, bottlenecks at the finish, scary descents that provide a thrill to the TV viewer but not the rider. The riders stage sit-ins when they think their safety is overly compromised.

Read through jobob's post. To keep the size of the peloton to a safe number, would you reduce the number of men's teams and deny the sponsors, the folks who put up the money, the opportunity to get their name on TV? The TdF is now about money, sponsorship and media coverage which means the sponsors only want the top riders in the world competing. It isn't about providing gender equality. I think the sponsors would drop like flies if it was.