The overwhelming consensus in the world of women’s cycling is that the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift has been a highly successful event. “It was better than I expected,” said French national champion Audrey Cordon-Ragot who has been representing the country’s flag on her jersey for the past week. She went on to say that the organisation and professionalism of the race has been a cut above anything else she’s raced in her career, describing it as “incomparable.”
For fans too, the race has been a great spectacle, be it on TV or watching on the roadside. The start and finish towns of each stage have been packed with spectators and there’s been people watching along most of the route of each stage. “We did not expect the big crowds coming and cheering us on this much,” continued Cordon-Ragot.
But while acknowledging the huge step this race is for the sport and appreciating the organisation finally giving women’s platform they deserve, there is always space to look for improvement in years to come. At the end of the race, Rouleur spoke to riders to understand what they would like to see from the women’s Tour de France in the future and how they see the race developing.
The introduction of a time trial
While a gushing Cordon-Ragot was reluctant to even venture into the territory of criticism about her home race, the Frenchwoman did note that she hoped to see the addition of a timed event in the future. “Time trials and team time trials. I think this would be super exciting and I think it’s also nice for the public to see time trials because you can see each rider one by one. Also you can talk about one each rider and discover more about the personalities of everyone,” she explained.
Her teammate and reigning time trial world champion Ellen van Dijk agrees with this sentiment, telling journalists that it was the “only thing that’s missing” from the event. In the men’s Tour de France, time trials are included every year, and it’s an event known to be the most “honest”, just a rider against the clock. Van Djik herself began the #womenagainsttheclock campaign alongside former Hour Record holder Joscelin Lowden to try and push organisers to include more timed events in the women’s WorldTour calendar.
Ellen van Dijk during stage five of the Tour de France Femmes (Image: Getty)
One issue with time trials is that they can highlight the current disparity between teams in the current women’s WorldTour peloton…