July 27, 2024 marked the ten-year anniversary of the first La Course by Le Tour de France - the women's race born out of a pressure group, petition and concerted rider-led effort to pursue equality in cycling.
The race that was the precursor to the Tour de France Femmes, and the race that got the Tour de France name back into women’s racing for the first time in 25 years.
While the start of the third edition of the Tour de France Femmes is something to be celebrated as continued progress, it’s important to remember that 10 years ago there was no maillot jaune dream to take aim at for women.
"10 years ago, we weren't even part of the Tour de France and we've had two editions already and we are looking forward to the third. It has already left its mark," said Marianne Vos ahead of the Tour de France Femmes on Sunday.
"10 years ago we couldn't think about this, and now it's there."
The right to win the Tour, in name, was taken away from women in 1989 by Christian Prudhomme’s predecessor as Tour de France director, Jean-Marie Leblanc, who cited a lack of media coverage and economic costs as the reason for stopping the women’s Tour.
It was a void that journalist Pierre Boué, among others, tried to fill with the Tour Cycliste Féminin and Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale but ultimately those races struggled with logistics, prize money and a whole host of other financial issues that eventually led to its demise.
When its final edition came and was won by Emma Pooley in 2009, it had dwindled down to just four stages and prompted the Brit to label it as more of a “petit boucle”, some way from the former 14-stage format or the 18-stage hay days in the 80s at the Tour de France Féminin.
Coincidentally, as the Grand Boucle Féminine ran out of steam, that same year left a certain Kathryn Bertine, former pro, author and filmmaker, searching for a Tour de France available to her after making a career change over to professional cycling two years prior.
“In 2009 I made the discovery of the fact that women were not at the Tour de France because, in those first days, I had big dreams of ‘I want to be a pro cyclist and race the Tour de France’,” Bertine told Cyclingnews.
“I did some research and found there was no Tour de France for women. How is that even possible? Was there ever? And of course, Google alerted me to the fact that there had been two Tours.”
Bertine, 49, was referring to the one-off 1955 race won by Millie Robinson and the iteration that ran from 1984-1989 which Leblanc had seen an end to.
“Finding out all these facts and details, it made no sense,” she admitted.
This discovery not only changed the course of Bertine’s life and professional career but would see her catalyse the growth of women’s cycling to previous heights and beyond, as she reached out to the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) for answers.
“Crickets” is how Bertine described the response she received initially when pushing for equality. She wasn’t yet a big figure in the sport and was without an obvious method to enact change.
Bertine turned to filmmaking, specifically of her documentary - Half the Road: The Passion, Pitfalls and Power of Women's Professional Cycling, which would explore the disparity and inequalities between men’s and women’s professional cycling, with the key question - why aren't women receiving half the road?
Creating Half the Road would see her come into close contact with Pooley, a star of the sport and Marianne Vos - the GOAT of not only women’s cycling but perhaps the sport as a whole.
Alongside the pair and triathlon legend Chrissie Wellington, and with validation that her ideas for equality weren’t crazy, Le Tour Entier was born - ‘the whole Tour’ - a pressure group aimed at reclaiming the race female cyclists deserved.
“That's when we pushed for the petition in 2013 we launched it during the Tour de France but it wasn't just a petition,” said Bertine.
“It was a huge movement behind the scenes: website, organisation, we went through drafts and drafts of everything. So it wasn't just some amateur petition.
“The whole idea was to sit down with ASO and to help them build the Tour de France for women. Long story short, it worked, and the petition went on change.org, went viral in 2013 and became one of the top three most signed petitions of that year.”
With over 100,000 people backing it and Bertine, Pooley, Vos and Wellington’s drive not relenting, ASO’s hand was forced, albeit only into offering up one day, a world apart from the desired and equal 21-stage race but it was a “foot in the door”.
“They were so fearful and reluctant. They really, truly thought nobody would watch,” said the former Saint Kitts and Nevis rider.
“We lobbied for the whole, the full inclusion of three weeks, just like the men - you don't lobby for half equality, you go for the whole thing, right?
“But we were very, very happy because we felt that one day was a foot in the door to prove that those numbers indeed would turn out in their favour.”
Bertine always came at it from a business standpoint to ensure it was about sustained growth, but while the one-day race successfully launched and ran for eight years, promises of further expansion never materialised.
“The whole idea was, when we proved that the numbers would turn in your favour, then we expected three to five days to be added every year until it's equal. That's what didn't happen,” said Bertine.
This was a reality Le Tour Entier and all those who worked to get the TDF back for women had to endure, with ASO not risking creating a stage race for eight years until June 2021 when they announced the first Tour de France Femmes, with Zwift committed as title sponsor.
Now into its third year and still at just eight stages, Bertine of course still believes isn’t enough, not wanting to give up the fight for equality until it's exactly that - equal. 21 stages for men and women or perhaps 14 for both, she's adamant that it should be the same opportunity, half-joking that with one stage being added for the 2025 race, it will only be another 36 editions until the women's race has 21 stages too.
"We are now going into year three. It's still eight stages. It hasn't grown. Now we know that next year they're planning on adding a ninth stage. So this is where, you know, we need to invoke humour, or we'll go crazy," Bertine said.
"It's always very important that I try to get the message across that I'm thankful for the progress. I'm hopeful for the future, but I'm not going to relent until we are equal across the board, until women have equal opportunities that men have in the sport."
She is delighted, however, to see the legacy of La Course and how successful lobbying can make everlasting change live on with this great stage race that kicks off in Rotterdam.
“Even though it's not La Course, it doesn't matter, it's the continuation because La Course proved that it is viable, it is marketable,” said Bertine.
“But the most important part was La Course finally got the name Tour de France back for the women, and that has continued with Tour de France Femmes."
The big day - Bertine’s two faces
When July 27, 2014, rolled around, Bertine secured a spot on Wiggle-Honda’s team to make sure she wouldn’t miss what she’d worked so hard to achieve alongside a whole host of other activists.
With 89km and 13 laps on the fabled cobbles of the world’s most famous avenue - the Champs-Élysées, the women’s peloton was back racing under the Tour de France title.
“The amazing thing is, Emma, Marianne and I were all there [racing]. Not Chrissie, she's a triathlete, but she was on the sidelines cheering," she said. "But the three of us all made it to La Course by Le Tour de France in 2014 and the biggest part of this story is that the naming rights were back.”
The journey to La Course’s startline wasn’t fully one of success for Bertine who in great detail has been through what it took to enact change in one of her books, STAND, with a divorce and arduous personal situation leading her to race the big day with “two faces”. One of the great pride in what she’d been part of achieving, the other of a person going through a divorce and suffering from depression.
"Everything about La Course was wonderful, but of course, behind the scenes, it was one of the most challenging days, because I was going through a very new divorce that was unexpected, and it was a bizarre thing to have," recalled Bertine.
"I wore two faces: there was the public face which was all about equality and bike racing and sports, and then the private face, which was just in the most severe state of depression.
"But when I look back on the memory, of course, I choose to say that it was the greatest day because I'm not going to let the sad part get to own any sort of title in that day.”
Bertine was actually one of the 24 riders not to finish the race but this was down to a blessing in disguise, a flat tyre and the opportunity to drink it all in. The women raced in the morning before the final day of the men's Tour and finally got to share the stage and the crowd.
“It was the greatest day of my cycling life, and in all respects, the greatest day of my life, in terms of energy, emotion," said Bertine. "I flatted in the middle of the race and was unable to finish because our team car was the last one in the line and I wasn't able to get back to the peloton.
“But none of that matters, because it actually gave me this amazing gift that doing that last lap or two gave me the ability to look out at the crowds and see how many humans had come to see La Course by Tour de France.
“That was a gift unlike any other, just the cheers of the people who were there watching something that finally existed again was huge."
Bertine was roared on by fans to the line, not fans who specifically knew her, or knew what she was going through, or what it had taken to drive this race into existence. And it was always about the collective effort for her, crediting her contemporaries Vos, Pooley and Wellington.
"[With] Marianne, Christie and Emma, we were an army of change together," Bertine said.
"They validated that I wasn't crazy and that change needed to happen, and without their emotional strength, there's no way I would have been able to continue alone.
"I draw the analogy that, yes, they were the superstars, but someone had to drive the bus of progress. So I was the bus driver, but we wouldn't have gone anywhere without the right combination of superstars who were willing to put their reputations on the line as well."
10 years ago today I stood on the start line of the race we fought so hard to achieve: #LaCourse by Tour de France. Women were finally back at Le Tour and @LaCoursebyTDF 2014 was the game-changer that led to @LeTourFemmes. My life fell apart in the process during our fight for… pic.twitter.com/XiSUQ0L2shJuly 27, 2024
