UCI President
David Lappartient has approached the topic of women's cycling in a recent interview, and has given an update on the situation regarding the amount of riders and races at the top level of the sport, which is very quickly increasing.
In an interview with Wielerflits, where topics such as a
possible salary cap were also discussed, Lappartient was asked about how the UCI is dealing with the sudden increase in the women's professional calendar: "We are now almost at the maximum of the number of competition days that we can still add to the calendar. In recent years, many new, good competitions have been added, such as the Tour de France Femmes this year. You can now see that more and more organizers are being encouraged by the local authorities to also organize a women's competition. Of course this is nice, but the question is whether there are enough riders for all those new races.”
He added: “We will soon have to say no to major organizers when they sign up for the WorldTour for women. The challenge for us is already to have enough good riders who can be active at the highest level for a large part of the season. That is why we want to continue to work globally to get women's cycling off the ground in all contingents.”
In 2022, the number of women's World Tour teams has increased from 9 to 14, however the calendar is also ever-expanding, with the likes of a Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix and several other races being recently implemented into the World Tour calendar. “There is indeed an imbalance between the number of riders or teams and the current competition calendar. We have to recognize that the women's peloton at the highest level is not yet big enough. For the men, we have about nine hundred riders at the top two levels, while for the women it is less than four hundred. So you cannot offer the women the same program as the men," he said.
That however, is not a negative evolution. It has been widely reported that there are currently some difficulties in women's teams to fulfill their calendar as expected, aswell as the frequent usage of non-full lineups towards some race. But that comes as an opportunity to further expand the teams as the demand for riders is high - and the investment opportunities are also on the rise with additional broadcasting time and extra races making it atractive for new sponsors to invest in the sport.
“I am positive. When I see where we come from and where we are now, women's cycling has made unprecedented progress. The salaries of the riders have increased, so that the average wage for a WorldTour team is already 50,000 euros. The riders at the highest level can now live off their sport. I am also convinced that the Tour de France Femmes will give women's cycling an extra boost next summer," he concluded.
