THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE WOMEN WHO CHANGED CYCLING

Author of new book Revolutions: How Women Changed the World on Two Wheels, Hannah Ross chronicles the women from history who blazed a trail for the professional cyclists of today

At the end of June, the 108th Tour de France will roll out from Brittany. Once again, for the 21 stages of action in the men’s race, the women’s nearest equivalent, La Course, will be a single stage run over a solitary day – a 107km footnote. Next year promises more, with the six-day Battle of the North in Scandinavia set to land on the 2022 WorldTour schedule, and it could also be the year when ASO, the Tour de France’s organiser, finally delivers on its mooted women’s version of the race – an idea that has been tantalisingly touted for some time now.

Even if those races come to fruition, there will remain some way to go still until women’s road racing matches the men’s for opportunities, exposure and money. This year’s Strade Bianche became emblematic of the ongoing struggle for parity when fans contributed to a crowdfunder to equalise the women’s prize money of €2000 with the men’s €16,000. It’s far from the only race to o"er markedly di"erent cash rewards to its male and female winners.

Progress on the road to equality in pro cycling has been slow, with many obstacles along the way, despite women having been racing for as long as men. In fact, cycling was one of the first competitive sports women participated in, with an event at the Parc Bordelais in Bordeaux in 1868 regarded as the first women’s cycle race - just a few months after the first recorded men’s race. Watched by thousands of spectators, four women competed on velocipedes (the precursor to the bicycle as we recognise it today), making the decades of marginalisation that followed even more frustrating.

For instance, women’s track racing only became part of the Olympic Games in 1988, though women had been racing in these events for over a century by that point. In fact, there was no women’s cycling whatsoever at the Olympics until 1984, while men have competed since 1896. Only since 2012 have there been an equal number of men’s and women’s cycling events.

There has, though, been a long line of remarkable women throughout the history of cycle racing who have become legendary for their remarkable achievements in what Nicole Cooke described in 2017 as “a sport run by men, for men”. Here are just a few of them – inspirational women who helped pave the way for today’s pros like Anna van der Breggen and Lizzie Deignan, who put women’s cycling on the map and helped progress it to where it is today.