‘Earning the same as men here is just the start. Other races must step up now’
Hannah Barnes tells that equal pay at the Women’s Tour can be game-changing move for her sport
Hannah Barnes, like most of her fellow professionals on the women’s side of the sport, is far too polite and well-mannered really to let rip. “It’s just a bit embarrassing, to be honest,” she says. “It does make me angry sometimes. But I don’t do it for the money. None of us do. You have to love it. For the women [in pro cycling], you really have to love it…”
We are talking, of course, about the awkward subject of pay in women’s cycling. Awkward because, while Chris Froome trousered earnings in excess of €200,000 (£176,500) for winning the recent Giro d’italia (on top of a reported ‘appearance fee’ north of €1million (£882,500)), the winner of next month’s Giro Rosa will only earn enough to buy her teammates a few pizzas. And even then they might need to hold back on the extra toppings.
“The Giro is probably the biggest race on the women’s calendar – our equivalent of a grand tour,” Barnes says. “But if you win a stage, you only win something like €150 [£132]. And I think the overall is €250 [£220]. As I say, it’s just embarrassing.”
No wonder there is such a buzz about this week’s OVO Energy Women’s Tour. The announcement earlier this year that female riders would earn the same as their male equivalents at the Tour of Britain – with a total prize pot of €90,000 (£79,500) this year – was another huge step in the growth of women’s professional cycling. A “potential game-changer”, according to Barnes. “It’s huge for us,” admits the 25-year-old Canyonsram rider. “I date a professional cyclist [Team Sky’s Tao Geoghegan Hart] so I know what they get for winning a race. And I know what we get. It’s unbelievable the difference. But I think this has really raised the bar now and other races and organisers are going to have to step up. [Tour de France owners] ASO for one. It’s exciting.”
‘Exciting’ is a word that is being used a lot in women’s cycling at the moment. And not just in relation to pay. There is a feeling that the sport is on the cusp of genuine growth, with a bigger talent pool, increased media enthusiasm, and sponsors starting to cotton on to the fact that they can potentially get a greater return for their investment than in the men’s sport.
There is still a long way to go. The OVO Energy Women’s Tour, with its live television coverage and equal pay, is very much the exception rather than the rule. But it is a step in the right direction.
Barnes – who finished third overall last year and, in the absence of Lizzie Deignan, will be carrying the hopes of a nation on her shoulders this week – says she is just looking forward to the experience of competing in “a proper race” this week.
Speaking from her home in Girona, Spain – where she was busy preparing until flying over to England yesterday – she says she is not alone in considering it the biggest race in women’s cycling these days. “I think it is. And I think a lot of people would agree,” she says. “We have the Giro, which is probably the hardest. And Flanders. That is a massive one-day race. But you only have the last 10km of that on the telly. And you know that when you’re riding along and you have all those people on the side of the road, nine out of 10 are there to watch the men later in the day.
“In the Women’s Tour, we have television highlights coverage every evening, and every single person on the side of the road is there to see us race.”
Barnes has the added bonus of being able to race in front of friends and family. She even races alongside one of them in teammate and younger sister Alice.
“Every year my mum and dad take the whole week off work,” says the Tunbridge Wells-born rider. “It’s nice to be able to race in front of them. They were the ones who helped me and Alice at the start. We didn’t have many holidays. Any spare money we had went on bikes or petrol, driving us around the country.”
The question is, will Barnes be giving them much to shout about this year? Can she improve on her third place from 12 months ago, when she memorably donated her podium champagne to her granny? Barnes is unsure.
Expectations on her have increased considerably since this time last year. Her 14th place at the Road World Championships in Bergen, Norway, last autumn – when she made the final selection but could not mark all three of her Dutch rivals and was eventually swallowed up by the bunch as Chantal Blaak won – brought her to the attention of a wider audience, with Deignan tipping her as a “future world champion” (“A comment like that, from Lizzie… it was a big deal,” she says.) But the truth is she has some doubts about her form, and about the route itself.
Barnes took two stage wins and the overall at the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana in February, but since then there has not been much to write home about. “I wouldn’t say I’m very happy with this season so far,” she admits. “It’s just been plodding. Nothing special. I don’t know how helpful it was to start the season so well because you have that expectation from then on. But I’m really wanting to have a good race. I’d love a stage win. That would help with my confidence. I’m a rider who thrives on confidence.”
With defending champion Kasia Niewadoma on her team, and sister Alice also in good form, having won a stage of the recent Lotto Thuringen Ladies Tour, it may be that success is spread out across Canyon-sram. The Barnes sisters are likely to target the sprint-