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Earlier this week, former World Time Trial Champion Emma Pooley (who won a silver medal in 2008) explained why the women's Tour de France failed on the BBC Radio 4 show, Woman's Hour.
"There used to be the 'Tour de France Feminin' in the 1980s that was two weeks long, with proper mountain stages, but it eventually fizzled out because of a lack of sponsorship," said Ms. Pooley.
The death of the women's Tour is emblematic, many argue, of a broader failure by cycling's governing body, the International Cycling Union (known by its French initials, U.C.I.), to support its pro women riders. Yesterday, Olympian Marianne Vos filed an online petition to Tour director Christian Prudhomme saying, "it is about time women are allowed to race the Tour de France, too."
At noon on Friday, more than 3,000 people had put their names to Vos' petition.
Kathryn Bertine, director of "Half the Road," a forthcoming documentary about professional women's bike racing, spoke more about the U.C.I.'s lack of gender parity on WNPR's The Colin McEnroe Show.
"It comes down to the head of the U.C.I. being really apathetic towards women's cycling," Bertine says. "Our entire side of the sport has been discounted and really not seen as equal from the inception of the Tour."
U.C.I. President Pat McQuaid has repeatedly come under fire from women cyclists. The criticism has become particularly pointed over the issue of money, with professional women riders complaining the U.C.I. pays out substantially less prize money to women and has yet to offer women riders a base salary.
Brian Cookson, a board member of the U.C.I. who is running against McQuaid for president in an election later this year, called attention to the low-profile of women cyclists in a recent manifesto, saying he plans to introduce modern employment standards for women pro riders and appoint at least one woman on every U.C.I. commission.
"If the U.C.I. is to become a modern and progressive International Federation, we must ensure that there are rules specifying teams guarantee a minimum wage for women pro riders and proper modern terms of employment," Cookson writes.
With the post-Lance Armstrong world of cycling struggling to re-establish its credibility and navigate the fallout from years of doping, Bertine says the U.C.I. needs to do more to highlight positive stories of athleticism coming out of the women's pro circuit.
"The women's side of the sport has such incredible characters," Bertine said. "All the good stuff in pro cycling is happening on the women's side right now and it would be incredibly lucrative to include the women in the major stage races."
Peter Flax, editor-in-chief of Bicycling magazine agreed. He said he wants more women to ride at both the recreational and racing level. But getting women on the Tour? That's going to require changing more minds and finding the money.
"There's no physical limitations to what women can do in the sport, there's just logistical heritage getting in the way," Flax said.
"One of my least favorite things about the Tour de France is after the stage is over there is a ceremony where the [winners] go up on a podium and these young models in matching color dresses come up and kiss the winner on the cheek." Flax said. "I cringe every time for the message the sport is putting out there - that women aren't out there racing at this high profile event - they're up there in short skirts kissing the winner. And it makes me think that it damages the long term vitality of the sport. Because we need all the young girls who are watching to get on their bikes and participate and that's not the right message at all."
