Tour de Yorkshire organisers have turned this year’s race into the most lucrative on the women’s calendar, offering a first prize for the one-day event that will exceed the men’s winnings for their three-day stage race over the same weekend.
Thanks to a three-year deal with the supermarket chain Asda – who sponsored the “Tourmakers” volunteers when Yorkshire hosted the Tour de France start in 2014 – the first prize for the women’s Tour de Yorkshire will be €20,000 (£15,628).
In another development that will help to galvanise women’s cycling worldwide, the 135km, three-and-a-half-hour race from Otley to Doncaster on Saturday 30 April will be televised live in full.
The dramatic expansion of the Yorkshire event after a low-key beginning last year means that British roads appear to be hosting an informal contest to stage the richest and most high-profile contest on the women’s calendar.
That is probably appropriate for a nation that boasts the current world road race champion, Lizzie Armitstead, who has dominated racing this season, taking three wins in four starts. The Yorkshire upgrade comes in the wake of the successful launch in 2014 of the Aviva Women’s Tour five-day event by the men’s Tour of Britain organisers Sweetspot, who have always been open about their aim to put women’s prize money and race organisation on a par with men’s racing.
“Compared to our men’s race, if a rider won all three stages in that, and the overall, they would make €14,000, so that is 40% more,” said Sir Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire. The total prize purse will be €63,623. “The aim was always to create the most lucrative women’s race on the planet,” Verity added. “There are three things women cyclists have been asking for: the same course as the men, the same media coverage and financial parity. All three are valid criteria and we hope we can address all three. What I don’t want is for my daughter to say to me: ‘I want to be a professional cyclist’ and for me to have to answer: ‘how will you earn a living?’”
Eurosport will broadcast the entire event, while ITV4 will cover the final three hours – pretty much the whole event bar the ceremonial roll-out – live as well.
The 135km course begins in Otley, home of the Armitstead, and covers the same roads as the men’s event hours later, travelling through Harewood and Pontefract. “There are three categorised climbs and the route is at the upper limit in terms of distance, so it’s not benign in the slightest,” said Verity, no doubt aware that last year Armitstead skipped the inaugural event as the flat, relatively short route around York was not tough enough for her.
