Women’s Worldtour growth is exciting

Iwasn’t sure that I was the right person to write this column. I’m a young, male pro cyclist. I’ve ridden for a whole host of development teams as I came up through the ranks and my view is very much one of privilege.

At the start of last season I was asked, along with one other person, to co-write Zwift’s report into the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. They commissioned a gigantic independent report into all things women’s cycling, from TV viewership numbers, to rider social media data and everything in between. It gave me the nitty and the gritty of what’s going on behind the scenes.

We’ve all got to doff our caps to brands like Zwift. They put their money where their mouth is and backed the biggest cycling race in the world. For decades, female pros have asked for their own Tour, but until Zwift backed it their questions went unanswered. The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift has the potential to be the pinnacle of women’s cycling, attract more sponsorship and take it to the next level.

From my perspective, the relative infancy of women’s cycling is exciting. I’m sure we can all agree that the men’s pro peloton is a bit of a mess. The calendar doesn’t make sense, and there is no true order as to what happens. I hope that as the WWT expands, it learns from the mistakes of the past.

Let’s avoid having two important races such as Tirreno-adriatico and Paris-nice overlapping each other. Why not throw caution to the wind and truly mix up the calendar to create something new? No need for clashing races if there’s no history behind it.

We can debate endlessly about whether the sport is growing at the correct rate, in the correct manner, or whatever else. The important thing, though, is that it’s growing.