Million Euro contracts, expansive budgets and trickle-down economics - the Tour de France Femmes effect In the last few years, women’s cycling has been through waves of dramatic and wide-reaching change. Go back to 2019, and you’ll find a situation that was very different to today: no real Tour de France for women, no Paris-Roubaix, no WorldTour team status, no minimum wage for women, and no huge contracts. Fast forward to today, and the women’s peloton has all those things and more, with the trajectory only heading upwards.
Part of this is down to global trends in women’s sports - viewership is growing exponentially, commercial value is up across the board - but much of it is down to some specific changes in women’s cycling. In 2022, Tour de France organisers ASO put on the first Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, the first multi-day Tour de France race for women in decades, and the change stemming from just this one race has been impossible to ignore. By all accounts, the financial standing of the sport has skyrocketed in the last few years, with sponsors investing more money, team budgets growing, and riders earning more than ever.
More money is coming into the sport, and more is being spent within it, as increased professionalism means higher costs for teams and race organisers. The headline figures all seem positive, but just how significant has the impact of the Tour been? What else has changed since 2022? Are there any negatives hidden behind the positives? It.