While Simon Yates made history as one of three British riders to win all the men's three-week Grand Tours in one year, women's cycling made history in a more modest way, with the first-ever women's stage race at the Vuelta a España – all two days of it. While the mountains of Andorra, Covadonga and the Balcón de Bizkaia provided an epic stage for the men, the women got to show what they could do with a flat team time trial, followed by a sprinter's circuit race around Madrid.
Over the summer, the subject of equality in men's and women's racing has been a frequent topic, with debate continually revolving around the same themes: why isn't there a women's Tour de France? Why is it so hard to watch the Giro Rosa? Why, with the exception of the Giro's 10 days of racing, does the UCI only allow six days maximum for a women's stage race, while the minimum number of stages for a men's Grand Tour is 15?
If women's stage racing is so limited, it begs the question, can women even ride a three-week Grand Tour? And if so, why does the UCI limit women's stage racing?
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Physiology
"To me it's really obvious – there's no physiological or any other reason why women couldn't also do a three-week event," says Dr. Ross Tucker, of Science of Sport, which draws on the latest scientific research to shed light on debates and controversies within the sporting world. "Of course they are capable of it. The only barrier is a socio-cultural one." He points out that, "elite marathon runners all run 160 to 200km per week, male and female, and that's over many more weeks than three.
"Cycling seems to me to be where running was in the 1940s," he adds. He cites the famous case of the 1928 Olympics, where a number of women allegedly collapsed at the finish of the 800m running race (a myth, incidentally, that was effectively debunked in a 2012 Runner's World article). The Olympic committee used this early example of 'fake news' to limit women's track racing to distances of no more than 200m – for the next thirty years. It wasn't until 1984 that women got to run the marathon in the Olympics.
That same year saw female riders get their first Olympic road race. But while there are no longer any distance limits for female runners, who compete in ultra marathons and Iron Man triathlons, the distances for female cyclists are still severely truncated compared to men. For example, in a WorldTour stage race, the maximum distance for an individual women's stage is 160km, while for a men's stage it's 240km. The maximum average daily distance is 140km for the women and 180km for the men. Those are differences of between 22 and 33 per cent. This doesn't even take into account the other ways difficulties are removed from women's races, such as this year's controversial World Championship route in Innsbruck, where women won't be riding the notorious 'Hell Climb' that features on the last lap of the men's race.
Historic precedents
Is women's stage racing interesting?
What is the UCI's position on longer women's stage races?
Questions of economics
The campaign for a women's Tour de France
What do the riders want?
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/feature-can-women-race-a-three-week-grand-tour
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