The Tour de France is traditionally a men's outing. It has not existed for women for twelve years. From 1984 to 2009 the tour organizer ASO had the Tour Cycliste Féminin in its program, then it was mothballed again. There was no longer the big cake for the women, but only a piece of sugar every year, called “La Course by Le Tour”, a one-day race. But now women's cycling is facing a turning point in its tough battle for recognition and equal treatment. In the coming year, the ASO will organize another women’s tour. It will start on the final day of the men's tour in front of a large crowd in Paris and lead eight days through France.

"I think it's really cool that it finally works," says Lisa Brennauer, the 33-year-old German champion on the road and in the time trial. “I think this is the fulfillment of a childhood dream for each of us. I see it as a mega-platform for women's cycling. ”On the way there, it has grown quite a bit in recent years. The International Cycling Federation (UCI) installed a World Tour for women in 2016.

Meanwhile, in addition to the World Tour teams, there are also Continental teams as a second division and springboard for the women, also based on the model of men.

Many spring classics no longer ignore women, most recently with Paris – Roubaix, one of the biggest one-day races on the women's calendar.

The infrastructure within women's cycling has also made progress.

The line-up and equipment of the teams have improved, and this also applies to the performance density.

"La Course was an intermediate step"

“It's been a constant process over the years,” says Lisa Brennauer, who starts for the Ceratizit-WNT team. She also sees the little piece of sugar “La Course”, which seemed like alms for many, as a stage on the way to equality. “I don't want to downplay La Course,” she says. “Of course you can't make us part of the Tour de France with a one-day race. But La Course was also an intermediate step from which we could benefit. We already had more coverage as a result. "

Women's street races are attractive. The distances are shorter than men’s and often things get right to the point from start to finish. Tough boredom in between, as in long men's races, is not what women are used to. If you are looking, you will also find broadcasts of women's races, but mostly only as a stream. The problem of lack of visibility has become apparent in the past few days at the ten stages of the Giro d'Italia Donne, the women's version of the Tour of Italy.

The transmission showed at some stages, allegedly due to technical problems, not even ten kilometers of the route, from the queen stage to Monte Matajur there were no pictures at all. A product that says “Tour de France” will not be able to afford anything similar next year. “The Tour de France will give us another boost. With it, visibility and all structures will continue to grow, ”says Lisa Brennauer. "I hope that the step will be as big as we all imagine."

Despite all the progress made in recent years, there is still a lot of room for improvement. "I think it's good how it all developed," says Lisa Brennauer. “But of course we are not yet where we want to be and what we are ready for.” There are still enormous differences between the large and the smaller women's teams. A poll published this week by the Cyclists' Alliance of 97 professional riders produced a sobering result. A third of the female drivers in Continental teams stated that they did not receive any salary. Only in the World Tour there is now a minimum wage, as well as regulations on continued wages during maternity leave, insurance and sick pay.

The Giro d'Italia Donne, which Lisa Brennauer rode in preparation for the Olympic Games, finished in nineteenth with two fifth and one fourth stage places. A track training camp now follows with the national team, then it's off to the Olympics, where they will have their first competition on July 25th, the road race. A difficult course awaits in Japan, not quite the terrain she prefers. “We as the German team are not going into the race as favorites, but that is a situation that opens all doors to go very far. It's all there. ”The Olympics are also a stage on which women's cycling attracts attention. A new, larger one will be added next year.