"Where is the Tour de France Hommes?" - Marlen Reusser points out to only partial equality in cycling

The 2027 Tour de France Femmes will follow the suit and introduce a new iconic ascent to the women's race. At the route presentation this week, it was revealed that, after Mont Ventoux in 2026, Col de la Madeleine in 2025 and Alpe d'Huez in 2024, it'll be Puy de Dome's turn to make a debut next year.

Time trial world champion Marlen Reusser hopes to among those who'll compete for the yellow jersey next year. That is why the Swiss cyclist was not absent from the route presentation. And as she reveals afterwards, that was only one of her reasons to travel to the Palais des Congrès de Paris in France's capital.

"The presentation was really cool, I remember doing after only I was a very short time in cycling, doing the Olympic Games and it was never something I was dreaming about or something, but then I had to go to the kick-off, it was kind of this event in Switzerland for the Olympic Games and I was so infected by the Olympic spirit," she explained in comments collected by Cyclingnews.

"So I wanted to come here to see if I get infected and I think that they managed well. It's a nice event."

The Swisswoman however points out something else about the entire event: "But I'm a bit disappointed still that it's Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes, where is the Tour de France Hommes? This is weird to me, this I don't understand."

Reusser also noticed the difference in how men's Tour director Christian Prudhomme was presented as compared to women's race director Marion Rousse, although bouth appeared on the same stage:

"Also we have two nice directors, but I don't feel like it's them on the same level, it's more the men's director that is [on stage] then also having next to him the women's," she said.

"So I think the Tour is doing so great showing that there is not only men's sport, but then we speak a lot about it but we just should do it more. I wish these little steps to come when we speak about the presentation and the whole thing."

Rousse heard out Reusser's comments, but countersthat the steps the women's race is taking in recent years are already massive leaps in the event's development - more comparable to a sprint, trying to catch up to the hundred-years-long history of the men's race.

In 2027, Grand Départs of both races will allign in Scotland, England and Wales. "It's already a big first to start in the same country outside the Tour de France, and the United Kingdom is a natural step, because they have already done a lot of work developing with women's sport, with things like the Rugby World Cup in 2025 or the Women's Tour of Britain," Rousse argued. "We're doing exactly the same thing in the UK, three days for the men, three days for the women - it's magnificent."