No Women In Tour De France

[kamikazejane]

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

[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.

[Eden]

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.

Unfortunately it takes a *huge* amount of organization to do these races.... an extra day of officials, support and traffic control would probably be too expensive for the organizers.

It might be feasible to send a women's race just after the men, so it would just be a few extra hours.

[pll]

Unfortunately it takes a *huge* amount of organization to do these races.... an extra day of officials, support and traffic control would probably be too expensive for the organizers.

It might be feasible to send a women's race just after the men, so it would just be a few extra hours.

I know... and it is also a massive 'tax' on the different cities. The problem is that some stages are really long. I'd love to see more women's races -- hence my advertising of the little coverage the Giro Donne gets.

[Possegal]

The pro-cycling race in Philly every June has both a men's and a women's race. The race is a around a 15 mile loop and the men do like 7 laps and the women do 4 I think. Each lap includes a climb up the Manayunk Wall. It's neat to watch both of them - they are on the course at the same time for a period. At one point the moto crew for the women's race came around the corner and they had put on their sign that for the first time ever - the women had lapped the men. The crowd went wild. (don't ask me to explain the logistics of it, as I honestly can't remember and it was 2 years ago that I was up there riding around on my bike with my sister and brother-in-law, watching it from several vantage points).

The one thing I noticed that I thought was interesting was how the team cars rode. The cars for the male riders rode with a level of crazy reckless abandon that the women's cars did not. Despite that in all cases it was men driving the cars. It was actually an interesting difference.

[kamikazejane]

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.

Thanks, had no idea about the Giro Donne.

[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.

[indysteel]

[QUOTE=SadieKate;645591]As Indy said, there is, or at least was a TdF for women.

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

Cancelled? I didn't know that. What a shame.

[kamikazejane]

[QUOTE=indysteel;645597]

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

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

Cancelled? I didn't know that. What a shame.

Yeah I saw that it was cancelled as well. What a bummer.

[Suze]

My understanding is that the women's Tour de France covers a different, shorter route, happens sporadically, and is not occurring this year, or last.Riders I met in the Pyrenees told me about it. I think it was called La Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale.

There is a group of 6 amateur women cyclists riding the route this year. I just published the link in a different post, hadn't seen this.

[Suze]

There used to be an event called La Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale. I believe it began in the 1980s, but hasn't happened for several years. Some riders in the Pyrenees told me it was considerably shorter. As an aside, I just posted a thread about six American amateur women who are riding the route this year. Hadn't seen this post when I wrote it.

[sashadieken]

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/0...al-exergy.html