Why It Took 119 Years To Build A Tour de France For Women

July 31, 2026

While the competitive product heading into these nine days of racing is undeniable, the short history of the event deserves far more scrutiny than it typically receives.

The men’s Tour de France was first contested in 1903, while the women’s version, operated by the very same company in the Amaury Sport Organization, did not exist in any comparable form until 2022. That gap of more than a century was the result of a series of myths about women, their interest levels, their bodies, and their commercial value that were never supported by evidence and that continue to shape how cycling invests in half of its potential athletes and fans. Forbes