2026 Tour de France Femmes leader and stage winner Marlen Reusser has made a call to step up the fight for parity between men's and women's cycling, arguing that a great deal has been done but that there are still steps to be taken.
The Movistar leader said she had enjoyed the race presentation in Paris, but argued that there was a greater level of protagonism for the men's event during it than the women's. She also asked why the men's event was not called the Tour de France Hommes to balance it out with the Tour de France Femmes.
ASO organiser Marion Rousse responded to her comments by saying that the race had taken major steps towards a much greater level of equality - something which Reusser had already underlined - but that both the races had to evolve at the same rate as the sport in general. She also pointed out that the Tour de France Femmes presentation was shorter, that was connected to the different length of the events.
Reusser said that she had felt inspired by the route presentation, recalling the time when she had been to a similar kind of event for the Olympics and it had considerably boosted her interest in the event.
"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.
"So I wanted to come here to see if I get infected and I think that they managed well. It's a nice event."
At the same time, she said, it would be good if things continued to develop in term of the fight for equality between the two events, starting off with their name.
"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. Also like 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."
Asked about Reusser's comments, Tour de France Femmes director Marion Rousse argued categorically that there had been a great deal of progress, but warned against taking decisions too fast that could potentially do more harm than good in the long run. She also pointed to the Tour de France Grand Départ in the UK as being a key balancing act between the two races.
"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 Tour de Great Britain Feminin," 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.
"We also will continue the work, but there's also the question of continuing to develop the race at the same pace as women's sport. If we suddenly do 15 days of racing tomorrow" - as opposed to the nine in the race as is the case for 2027 - "of course the women are able to do that, but certain teams would find that hard.
"We want to show what women's cycling is capable of doing and that's done, the sponsors are investing and the tv exposure is happening, that's all done. We are going to go on evolving, but we have to be careful, because once a step is taken you can't go back. Each decision is important."
Regarding any perceived imbalance between the men's and the women's presentation, she argued that that was "Not really the case, because obviously the men's presentation is going to be longer because there are 21 stages against nine.
"But if not the work is exactly the same and besides we are doing the same thing, it's just there are fewer stages."
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