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.