I love the Tour de France, and this year, I wish to take my own family experience to France to observe a couple of stages within the Alps; however, when my daughter asked if women can race, I became perplexed. I could have fobbed her off with the flimsy vintage excuses about a lack of hobby from enthusiasts and a loss of sponsorship from the enterprise. However, I knew they had been pink herrings. Where there’s a will, there is a way, yet regrettably, the desire of race organizers and the media is deplorably lacking. In recent weeks, that has been blatantly obvious, and those who have to know higher have discovered their proper shades.
Tour de France organizers ASO holds a token, one-day race for girls in July known as La Course, but any hopes of expanding that to a complete “Tour” were quashed with the occasion director’s aid, Christian Prudhomme.
He advised newshounds, “I would now not know how to organize such an event in July.” But genuinely organizing a ladies’ Tour de France to run simultaneously with the guys’ occasion wouldn’t be a big stretch for an organization along with ASO – a—of the info infrastructure is the area, the sector’s media is watching, and the enthusiasts are lining the road.
Of direction, the event can be run out of doors in July. However, the already-packed calendar would limit this, and it is also efficiently a separate occasion that, from my revel in, would be more of an assignment to organize than a mixed event.
Depressing and repeated acts of misogyny and discriminatory behavior shamefully back up the gender inequality in biking. The latest example was when a girl fan asked Belgian bike owner Iljo Keisse and his team associates to pose for a picture with her. Keisse stood at the back of her, representing in an extremely degrading manner. That behavior turned into unacceptable; however, even more depressing was the response from Keisse’s group supervisor, Patrick Lefevre, who got the crew to boycott the rostrum presentation in protest to the £60 first-class his rider acquired for his behavior.
The way of life of misogyny is overlooked in recreation, and a way forward out of the pit of inequality is driven by the aspect of a culture. Logistical problems are given as feeble excuses for enterprise as usual.
When a women’s three weeks Tour de France is even recommended, the Wolfpack coming howling at the door of social media, and those in power turn the other way, mainstream media ignores the girls blazing trails for their game, which includes Sanne Cant, who has just gained her third consecutive Cyclocross World Championship. Simultaneously, folks confronting the troubles that face them are held up as agitators and troublemakers for the game.
I need my daughter to develop the values and beliefs that her input into society is legitimate and valued as that of another individual, regardless of gender. At the moment, I am deeply disappointed that the game of biking no longer appears to proportion to these beliefs.