First of all, if you didn’t watch the 9-stage Tour de France Femmes, try and find it. Unlike the men’s version, we didn’t know the winner till the penultimate stage, and it was a very exciting race, especially if you are French. Women’s pro cycling has come a long way since I started tentatively watching it some years ago and watching their Tour feels a lot like watching the guys’ version, i.e. team tactics are similar now (whereas before I struggled to see if there were any) and France TV even has The History and Culture Lady, like the men’s Tour does. It’s the whole shebang, but not dragged out over 3 weeks.
This year had an amazing number of people on the side of the road, too. I’m not sure if it was more than previous years, but the roads were lined with fans and they were many people deep at the Arrivées. There were also 3.16 million TV viewers in France for the Queen Stage, which is an amazing 37% of the people watching TV at that time. Okay, it doesn’t hurt that the French won 4 stages and the overall race, but it’s a great sign.
But you really know you’ve hit the big time when the media invent controversies because they know you want to read more about the sport. The 3 top stories on a certain cycling news website right now are:
- Is it good or bad that Pauline Ferrand-Prévot lost so much weight for the Tour.
- Is Demi Vollering really a ‘drama queen’?
- Why does PFP take home 10 times less prize money than Pog?
No news is bad news, they say, so bring on the controversy!
The Vicious Cycle 
It seems like the weight debate was launched by Cedrine Kerbaol a few days earlier in some of her comments to the press about setting a healthy example to young girls. Not sure if she had PFP in mind, but that was the first thing that jumped into my head when I read them. PFP also has said multiple times that her goal weight at her major objective is never sustainable for very long and has even implied it might be unhealthy for longer periods of time.
In any case I was cheering her on the whole race and was happy she won.
They do talk about weight and men in the peloton, but this had a different tone. There are a lot more people willing to condemn girls’ bodies out there…and it makes ‘good’ media.
Also on the prize money, I actually found the press siding with Marion Rousse on the amazing progress women’s cycling has made in the last 4 years. It was also pointed out that the TDF femmes prize money was actually higher than the Men’s dauphine 8 day stage race, considered the most important one week stage race.
I’m watching Stage 6 now based on your enthusiasm. Too soon to tell how engaged I’m going to be. However I CAN say that “Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift” is an unfortunate mouthful liable to send me to the looney bin after the 379th time the commentator has to say it. Was that REALLY necessary?
The last couple of stages are good. I agree with you about the mouthful that is ‘avec Zwift’ and I didn’t really need to suffer through it – weirdly, the French commentators did say it very much, or least that was my impression.