The Women’s Tour de France Will Return After a 33-year Absence

The women’s Tour de France will return in 2022, race director Christian Prudhomme has confirmed. After a 33-year absence, the race will take place after the men’s event next year.

The Tour de France women’s race ran from 1984 to 1989, but was cancelled owing to what Prudhomme called ‘a lack of economic balance’.

Speaking to The Guardian, he said, “What we want to do is create a race that will stay the course, that will be set up and stand the test of time. What that means is that the race cannot lose money.”

He added, “Today, all the women’s races that we organize lose us money. If it makes money, that’s great, but it must not lose money or it will end up like the Tour in the 80s and it will die.”

“If that balance had been achieved then, we would be on our 35th women’s Tour now. The challenge is to set up a race that can live for 100 years. That’s why we want it to follow the men’s Tour, so that the majority of the channels which broadcast the men’s Tour will cover it as well.”

The 2022 men’s Tour de France is scheduled to take place from July 1 to July 25.

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