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news
Emma Pooley in the 2012 Olympic time trial (copyright DCMS)Exclusive: Emma Pooley on women’s Tour de France sponsors, money & scheduling
Just how would a women’s Tour de France work if it ran on the same roads and days as a the men’s event? That’s been the main question in forums and comments since Marianne Vos, Emma Pooley, Chrissie Wellington and Kathryn Bertine launched their petition for a women’s Tour de France to Tour supremo Christian Prudhomme last week.
That petition has now has over 16,000 signatures after just a few days.
Road.cc asked Emma Pooley how she and her co-petitioners saw a women’s Tour working if it ran alongside the men’s race.
“We have given a lot of thought as to how a women's TdF alongside the men's race might work,” Pooley said in an email, “though at the moment the main point is just to get the message out to cycling supporters and spectators, and to show that the demand for such a race is there from that side. The details would have to be discussed and finalised later.”
Follow the money
The big question is, where does the money come from? The Tour de France is a business and makes most of its money from sponsors, start and finish towns and VIP spectator packages. To fund a women’s race, more money is going to to have to come from somewhere, either the existing sponsors, or new supporters. But Pooley points out that compared to men’s racing, women’s racing is cheap. The prize money for the overall winner of the Giro Rosa, the biggest women’s race, is just 460 Euros.
“If it's to be the same race then it would have to have the same main sponsors, because the same podium should be used every day either immediately before or immediately after the men,” said Pooley.
The 2012 Olympic road race showed millions that a women's race could be hard-fought and exciting.
“If additional sponsorship were needed to fund the extra costs of the women's race, I think separate jersey sponsors could be recruited. Crucially though, the women's race would also have to be filmed and some of the footage shown live on TV, so that the sponsors get a return for their investment.
“I expect the Tour may claim to be cash-strapped and to need every Euro centime they can get from every sponsor, just for the men's race. But from the perspective of women's cycling, that's simply not true. There's plenty of money there compared to our races, which are run on a shoestring!”
Running the races together
The daily organisation of an extra race would be a big challenge, and there have been suggestions that the women’s stage could be run the day before or after the men’s. That would allow the women’s Tour to take advantage of the men’s race’s local publicity, but it would need an entire extra set of infrastructure. But Pooley says that’s not the idea at all.
“The key request (and, I believe, requirement for a women's event to be successful) from our side is that the men's and women's stages are all run on the same roads, on the same day and with the same stage finish,” she said. “That is the point about benefiting from the spectators and media that are there to watch the men's race anyway, and it also provides extra cycling viewing and entertainment for those spectators.”
Pooley says that while this would have its own logistical challenges, they would be minor compared to the logistics of the Tour as a whole, and add an extra aspect to a race that flashes by in seconds.
“It also saves some some hassle by avoiding closing the roads for another day. The spectators are there to watch a bike race, why not give them two to watch? And since the whole Tour is already a huge logistical challenge, I don't believe that adding another race early before the men would be impossible or detract at all from the Tour - in fact, it would add to it.”
Emma Poole leading the 2012 Olympic women's race
No need for much extra media
Another issue that’s been raised is that of media and especially TV coverage. Again, Pooley sees this as a bonus of running the two races at the same time, rather than an obstacle.
“The extra media commitment would amount to an extra mobile film crew to show the actual action from our race. The whole of the world's cycling media is there, writing stories about the tiniest little snippets of information they can dig up. They must have time to cover a women's race!
“And one of the reasons our races don't recieve much media coverage at the moment is that it's too expensive to send journalists out to women-only races, especially for the media outlets that focus on women's racing. Eg our Giro Rosa / Giro Donne gets great coverage in Italy, but most international cycling media are busy at the Tour and can't send someone to cover the biggest race of our calendar.”
Places to stay
Pooley’s also not asking for female riders to stay in posh hotels (which is a good job as male riders don’t exactly stay at the local Ritz either). According to one source, the race books 1,200 hotel rooms for staff, teams and media. Pooley acknowledged the pressure the race puts on accommodation in host towns, but suggested an alternative for the women’s Tour.
“As to the hotel logistics question: I think this is being exaggerated. At our races we often have 3+ hour transfers after stages. I'm sure this could be resolved. And if they needed to hold a women's race on the cheap for the first year or two, the organisers could try sending teams to stay with host families (as happens in the US for women's teams) or even sponsorship by a camper-van firm! Honestly, I know the men complain about the quality of their accommodation at the Tour but I'm sure I've seen much worse at women's races.”
Sponsor pressure
Ultimately, Pooley wants the demand for a women’s race to come from the sponsors, fuelled by the spectator support reflected in her petition.
“Ideally the pressure for a women's race would also come from the race sponsors: hence the petition of cycling fans and spectators of all kinds, not just female cyclists,” said Pooley. “If sponsors realise that there is a viewing public out there who want to watch the women race too, they'll push the Tour to put it on.
“In an ideal world, a women's race would be held purely for equality, but I realise that the world is not ideal, and that commercial pressures are the only ones that are really effective in professional sport.”
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42 comments
When did I ever say "nobody wants to watch women's cycling"? What facts and statitistics did you present, other than "I watched it and so did people I know"?
I watched many women's cycling events during the Olympics too, but a four year 'juggernaught' is different to a regular annual event, and attracts many viewers otherwise disinterested in sport.
For comparison between mens/womens sporting events, look at the viewing figures for the Wimbledon finals in 2011 (for fairness, the last year when Murray wasn't included):
Men's final: 6.87million
Women's final: 2.67million
So yes, I would still say that it is a FACT that many women's events have lower viewing figures.
For the proposal for a women's TdF to be considered seriously, it also has to be demonstrably commercially viable to the organiser -the Olympics doesn't because it is funded by the home nation. Viewing figures are a fundamental part of that equation.
You seem to think I'm arguing against a women's race - I'm not. Just that they have to be able to show a return on investment for potential backers/organisers in order to make it profitable....as yet I haven't seen anything to support that. It's been all about the logistics of arranging the race.
You didn't say "nobody wants to watch women cycling" Seanboy did, and you said "the facts are correct".
I have presented the figures on numerous occasions, and am surprised you haven't noticed them yet. So once again:
Olympic Road Race peak viewing figures::
MEN'S 5.7 Million
WOMEN'S 7.6 Million
Please, give me something other than the Olympics - one example does not indicate a pattern.
Viewing figures for the TdF highlights on ITV 4 average at around 500,000, with Wiggins victory attracting 2m viewers on ITV1. Both these are significantly lower than the figures you quote above - demonstrating my point that the Olympics cannot be considered in the same context despite your repeated claim that it is 'comparable'.
Consider also that a simultaneous women's race may increase overall viewing figures but 'split' the viewership, resulting in lower audiences at different times for the separate coverage. This would be less attractive to broadcasters when trying to sell advertising space.
A few points before I jet off to the Alpe...
I didn't say the TdF was comparable to the Olympics, I said it was more comparable to the games than to other cycle races.
I certainly would not expect a Women's TdF to get 7.6 Million every day, nor would I expect it to get more of an audience than the Men. I do however think it would attract a healthy audience. It isn't the size of the audiences that is important so much that they seem to demonstrate Women's cycling is not lagging miles behind Men's in terms of interest.
Sorry I keep quoting the Olympic figures. I would compare the Giro and Giro Rosa, but the latter wasn't on television. And if "one example does not indicate a pattern," is extrapolating from two year old Wimbledon audiences an accurate way of gaugeing an interest in Women's cycling?
And, give a Man his due. Wiggo's audience was 2.6 Million on ITV1, with another Million watching the simulcast.
Nice, I've just got a sweaty 15 miles home to look forward to...
I deliberately didn't quote more recent figures for Wimbledon , as the disparity would be even worse - 17million for Murray's final the other week. Mark Cavendish wouldn't get figures like that if he took on the Champs Elysee stark bollock naked.......
It was also one of the few to get something like comparable coverage to the comparable mens race.
Most womens cycle races get far less coverage, so it seems pretty understandable that its current audience is smaller.
With any luck, BC, sweetspot, ASO or someone will do a few surveys to figure out if there's a large enough potential audience now to make the numbers work somehow or at least explain why not. I think we've come a long way since the 1980s...
Bah - had commented on the previous story but it has disappeared into the ether, think I'll go out and ride my bike instead of repeating myself.
I actually think this could work; for the road stages offer towns somewhere down the course route of the mens race the opportunity to be host town for the womens stage depart for less than it costs to host the mens - i'm sure there are many towns that ould jumpp at the opportunity to maximise on the tour passing through but just can't afford the cost of hosting depart.
That money will fund the depart and probably accommodation for the women - the low standards they put up with for most of their season means they don't expect much! Jersey sponsors and title sponsor and you've probably got a lot of the logistics covered - women's teams are generally smaller too, staff wise.
As for the commentors (that's not a real word is it?) on the previous story - I've replied over there already but I'll add that if you take Rabobank as a prime example, doping doesn't scare sponsors off women's racing as it's mostly a non-story - they can't afford it! AND only health food or women's clothes brands can sponsor women's cycling?! that has to be up there with the most ridiculous of comments; what does a (French domestic) supermarket chain have to do with how fast a scrawny bloke can get up a mountain?
oops, getting a bit ranty and long winded in my posting
"The extra media commitment would amount to an extra mobile film crew to show the actual action from our race"
This sentence alone suggests to me she hasn't really thought it through that well.
How so? They've already got the television feeds arranged, the mobile studio up and running, the cameras feeding back on the various monitors - wouldn't the women's race just work as another feed for the television company?
Plus, the TdF has got like ... four helicopters following it. They can spare one of those for a few minutes to cover the women too.
The only real logistical challenge I can see would be the live timings of the groups, and maybe another referees car. But feel free to say otherwise, if you think it's more complex.
Comment: It is not "an eatra film crew". Race coverage at a reasonable standard is 3 motos plus a helicopter plus a comms aircraft.
It is not an "extra referee car" - by the way it's commissaires, you have been listening to the dumbed down C4 coverage, clearly. An international race has a required number of car and moto commissaires, a requirement for three neutral service cars, direction cars and motos, police assigned to the race.
The whole thing could be a great idea, but at the moment it's simply that, an idea, and the logistics are complex, as anyone who thinks it through will know.
Not that it can't be done, just that to do proper justice to professional riders you need the full package, not some race on a shoestring which will inevitably look and feel like a sideshow to the main event, which is exactly not what the objective is.
All sounds eminently sensible.
I'd certainly get stuck into women's Fantasy Cycling with equal vigour as the men's (and with equally poor scores, no doubt)...
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