After a 33-year hiatus, women have returned to the world’s most-watched sporting event: the Tour de France.
On Sunday, 24 teams of six cyclists each lined up on the Champs-Élysées in Paris to begin the eight-day Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. The 640-mile stage race features two mountain stages and ends in the Vosges Mountains. In the 119-year existence of the men’s tour, women have competed in the official Tour de France only five times. The women’s tour lasted from 1984 to 1989 — and then was canceled because of a lack of financial backing. A women’s one-day race called La Course emerged recently, but some riders have said that it has been more of an insult than an opportunity.
