Daily Mail

TOUR DE FRANCE’S GENDER PAY GAP EXPOSED

- By MATT LAWTON Chief Sports Reporter

THE huge gap in prize money between the men’s and women’s races at this year’s Tour de France has been revealed. More than £2million prize money was paid out in the 21-stage men’s event, with Team Sky securing £640,000 while Cofidis collected the least of the 22 teams with just over £17,000. In contrast, the women’s event, called La Course and involving just two stages over 99.5km, had total prize money of just over £24,500 for the 21 teams. Britain’s Lizzie Deignan’s team, Boels Dolmans, were top earners with £8,500 while eight teams received nothing. Deignan, who finished second, complained the women were made to feel like ‘a bit of an afterthoug­ht’ by ASO, organisers of both races. Even if the men might argue they cycled 3,450km further and are the reason for the massive amount of television revenue — not to mention attracting more than 12million roadside spectators over three weeks — the discrepanc­y is startling. ASO declined to comment yesterday but Deignan was clearly uncomforta­ble about the format before it had even started, the mountain stage followed by a rather bizarre staggered pursuit race over the 22.5km time trial course in Marseille. ‘At first I was like “what are we a circus?”,’ said Deignan. ‘There needs to be changes in modern cycling. We got exposure today but it’s not where it needs to be — behind the scenes, in terms of logistics, we were left wondering what was going to happen at times but I enjoyed the crowds. It’s not something we get that often.’ Earlier this year, Nicole Cooke, the former world and Olympic road race champion, complained about such inequality. ‘It’s a sport run by men, for men,’ she said. ‘Little was done to support female road riders during my career.’ Meanwhile, Team Sky’s Mikel Landa has blamed team orders for costing him a podium place. The Spaniard, who is expected to leave the British team at the end of this season, finished one second behind thirdplace­d Romain Bardet. Speaking to the Spanish newspaper El Pais, Landa claimed he was made to wait for Chris Froome on the final mountain stage. Landa said: ‘I went ahead and pushed it, which was what Froome wanted. He told me to be slower, slower. I sacrificed myself.’

 ?? ERA ?? Circus: Lizzie Deignan blasted organisers
ERA Circus: Lizzie Deignan blasted organisers

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