3 ms·

> The women's Tour didn't even exist before 2022 That's not exactly true, there has been many variation of it before its return in 2022. Jeannie Longo was (is

> The women's Tour didn't even exist before 2022 That's not exactly true, there has been many variation of it before its return in 2022. Jeannie Longo was (is?) a quite popular rider in France (despite doping affairs).

light_hue_1 3y ago
> That's not exactly true, there has been many variation of it before its return in 2022. The history is somewhat more complicated, but not less sexist. "Tour de France Femmes" has only existed since 2022. You're right that there were other races, some officially related to the Tour, some unofficially related. There was the 1955 women's tour and the 1984-1990 tours which kept getting shorter because the owner of the Tour did not want to include women. Eventually they killed off the format and organizers weren't even allowed to stage their own. There were basically bootleg races under a different name (The Grande Boucle) in the 90s and early 2000s. This messy history underscores one thing: women just want equality with men. Just let them ride the same race.
- jacurtis 3y ago
  I don't know why the UCI doesn't just have a women's event alongside the men's event each day. In motorsports (like the "24 hours of Le Mans" for example), we see organizers running multiple races at the same time. We have hypercars racing at the same time on the track as the GT3 cars. hell, this year they even let Nascar run a car in its own class along side the other cars. In my example the results are still separated. The hypercars aren't competing against the GT3 cars, they are just all riding the same organized event. The commentators routinely rotate through the event to capitalize on viewers watching to see all of the events. This way the governing body gets the best of all worlds. They only have to host 1 event, but they get entry fees for hundreds of participants across many classifications. Those offering coverage can pool together people that might be interested in several different classifications and only have to pay for the expenses of one broadcast, while pooling together all of the viewers for maximum ad revenue. It is also good, because smaller classifications (like the single-car Nascar entry) can compete on the same track and same event to bolster interest in their sport. Everybody wins! I don't know why the UCI doesn't do the same thing. Let the women and the men race together. They could still have different classifications if they wanted to, but they would only need to support 1 event. The television coverage is already there and it might bring in new viewers that are interested in a women's event, which bolsters ad and sponsorship revenues. Furthermore they can get more entree fees from teams, to further support the costs of the event. It has to be far cheaper than trying to run two events, while also getting better coverage and interest.
  - conradfr 3y ago
    I don't think that's logistically possible. Also spectators would have to follow two races at the same time?

light_hue_1 3y ago

> That's not exactly true, there has been many variation of it before its return in 2022. The history is somewhat more complicated, but not less sexist. "Tour de France Femmes" has only existed since 2022. You're right that there were other races, some officially related to the Tour, some unofficially related. There was the 1955 women's tour and the 1984-1990 tours which kept getting shorter because the owner of the Tour did not want to include women. Eventually they killed off the format and organizers weren't even allowed to stage their own. There were basically bootleg races under a different name (The Grande Boucle) in the 90s and early 2000s. This messy history underscores one thing: women just want equality with men. Just let them ride the same race.

jacurtis 3y ago
I don't know why the UCI doesn't just have a women's event alongside the men's event each day. In motorsports (like the "24 hours of Le Mans" for example), we see organizers running multiple races at the same time. We have hypercars racing at the same time on the track as the GT3 cars. hell, this year they even let Nascar run a car in its own class along side the other cars. In my example the results are still separated. The hypercars aren't competing against the GT3 cars, they are just all riding the same organized event. The commentators routinely rotate through the event to capitalize on viewers watching to see all of the events. This way the governing body gets the best of all worlds. They only have to host 1 event, but they get entry fees for hundreds of participants across many classifications. Those offering coverage can pool together people that might be interested in several different classifications and only have to pay for the expenses of one broadcast, while pooling together all of the viewers for maximum ad revenue. It is also good, because smaller classifications (like the single-car Nascar entry) can compete on the same track and same event to bolster interest in their sport. Everybody wins! I don't know why the UCI doesn't do the same thing. Let the women and the men race together. They could still have different classifications if they wanted to, but they would only need to support 1 event. The television coverage is already there and it might bring in new viewers that are interested in a women's event, which bolsters ad and sponsorship revenues. Furthermore they can get more entree fees from teams, to further support the costs of the event. It has to be far cheaper than trying to run two events, while also getting better coverage and interest.
- conradfr 3y ago
  I don't think that's logistically possible. Also spectators would have to follow two races at the same time?