The Tour de France Femmes. When I was a kid I couldn’t have imagined it in my wildest dreams. The funny thing is, a Tour de France Femmes existed when I was a kid, sort of.
2001 is the first year I can actually remember watching the men’s Tour whilst for the women Spanish rider Joane Somarriba won overall and from my home country Germany’s Judith Arndt came third, although it would take several years until I actually first heard her name!
But getting back to the beginning, the start of a women’s race formed in the early Tour years before the First World War. It was uncommon to see women riding bike races such as Brest-Paris-Brest or Il Lombardia – uncommon but not unheard of. Racing in the early years of the sport wasn’t that divided, but more organisers and federations started to officially disapprove and even prohibit women’s races.
Cycling wasn’t exactly an “appropriate” activity for women at the time. Female cyclists were considered loose, deviant and completely inappropriate, especially the very idea of women taking part in racing full stop! At the most, cycling as a means of transport was something for poor women, yet a “woman of good standing” shouldn’t be seen in a race with scandalously form fitting clothes.
The first Tour de France took part in 1903 and its organisers had no intention of letting a woman ride it. Could it be the hardest race in the world if a woman could take part? Maybe even finish the race?
The history of the Tour de France for women started in 1909 with a prohibition – then nothing for nearly 50 years.
When you think of Manx cyclists (cyclists from the Isle of Man, who are kind of British but not really), the first name that comes to my mind, and probably yours, is Mark Cavendish. Yet decades before the ‘Manx Missile’ was born, another Manx cyclist won the first women’s Tour, her name Millie Robinson.
Organised by Jean Leulliot, who organised the men’s Paris-Nice at the time, the race largely took place in Normandy. It was five stages long and had 56 participants, but public disapproval, led by the press it has to be said, meant this Tour remained an outlier, a stunt race.
Sentiment at the time is captured well in a L’Equipe article from 1957:
“Women should be content with existing races and with cyclotourism, which corresponds much better to their muscular appearance”.
By 1958 though, things were changing with the first official UCI organised women’s cycling World Championships. Le Tour – always a bit more hesitant and traditional than others – had its second women’s edition in 1984, a year that corresponded with women’s cycling becoming an Olympic sport.
The predecessor of what is today’s A.S.O (Amaury Sport Organisation, who organise the Tour de France and other men’s and women’s races), organised the Tour de France Féminin from 1984 to 1989. The men’s and women’s races shared a finish and ran alongside each other. The only difference? The women’s race was shorter.
American Marianne Martin won in 1984, the Italian Maria Canins won both 1985 and 1986, and then came the home rider Jeannie Longo, 25-times a French national champion and winner of the Tour three years in a row.
But why did the race end in 1989? The simple answer – money. Tour director Jean-Marie Leblanc stopped the race citing economic difficulties, but A.S.O. to their credit did organise the race under a different name for four more years but without any connection to the men’s Tour de France.
From 1990 onward, we saw four new winners:
- Catherine Marsal (France)
- Astrid Schop (Netherlands)
- Leontin van Moorsel (Netherlands)
- Heidi Van de Vijver (Belgium)
Then interestingly enough, in 1992 a new race was founded; the Tour Cycliste Féminin ran alongside the A.S.O. organised race for two years. But just like the previous years, this race again fell foul of economic difficulties, unstable sponsors and very long race transfers. To top it off, they had to change the name in 1999 because A.S.O. deemed it too close to the Le Tour brand and even claimed trademark infringement!
And so we got the Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale which was expert trolling in my opinion!
Still facing economic difficulties, the race didn’t take place in 2004 and returned in a much smaller form in 2005. Instead of ten to 15 stages, we only got four to six stages and the race returned to only visit one region of France instead of several. The UCI eventually downgraded the race and fewer riders participated, with evident unsatisfaction from the last winner back in 2009 Emma Pooley who joked: “There are only four stages this year, so it’s more of a Petite Boucle than Grande!”
Only 66 riders started the “Grand Boucle” in 2009 and then again came nothing until public criticism by the media and riders led to the creation of La Course in 2014.
A one-day race once again in conjunction with the men’s Tour, while La Course was a wonderful race (and I hope it returns to the race calendar in the next few years at a different date), a one-day race didn’t truly compare to a women’s Tour de France. A.S.O again claimed economical problems for years until it finally announced a fresh Tour de France Femmes last June.
From 2022 onward, it’s an eight-day race starting in Paris just when the men’s race finishes. The organisers claim it will continue for at least 100 years and see themselves as the Tour de France for women not claiming any relation with its various ill-fated predecessors.
Will it keep? Who knows, but A.S.O seem quite committed.
