yesmam --
You are correct that there were no women in the "Tour de France" that
finished today. However, a "Women's Tour de France" was established
in 1984 and has been held 11 times.
Clearly, it is not an event that has been considered to be remotely as
important as the venerable men's version, which was established in
1903 and has been held every year since. For example, the website of
the Embassy of France in Australia provides a 14-paragraph history of
the Tour de France that allots only these few lines to the women's
event:
"In 1984 the Women's Tour de France was inaugurated, with a shorter
course being created. This was to become known as the "Tour of the
EEC" in 1990, only to revert to its old name in 1992."
http://www.ambafrance-au.org/aboutfrance/pages/tourdefrance.en.htm
Apparently, when the race was resumed under its original name in 1992,
it also adopted an alternative name -- "Le Grand Boucle Feminine
International":
Colorado Springs Independent: Iviews: Personal Space
http://www.csindy.com/csindy/2002-08-08/personalspace.html
The Women's Tour de France (or the "Grand Boucle") has apparently had
difficulty recently in getting and keeping sponsorships. Several
sources reported that the 2003 event had been cancelled in January.
For example:
"Within a few days in late January [2003], the Women's Challenge in
Idaho and the Women's Tour de France were canceled. Both events were
unable to secure title sponsorships in the floundering economy."
Active.com: Can women pro cyclists earn a living from their sport?
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=9697
And this piece, from another cycling website, is to the same effect:
"Within a few days last week [in January 2003], two of the world's
biggest women's cycling events were canceled. Organizers of the
women's Tour de France did not register the event with UCI and the
2003 edition was jettisoned."
Spoke Radio: Farewell to Women's Cycling?
http://www.spokeradio.com/cycling.html
It appears that although there later was some renewed hope that the
2003 event would be held after all, it was again reported to be "in
doubt" as of April 2003, according to a regularly updated website
maintained by a British women's cycling organization:
"GRAND BOUCLE UNSURE
The women's Tour de France, the Grand Boucle, which is due to commence
on 3 August on the island of Corsica, has a shadow of doubt still over
it. The race has yet to be officially put onto the UCI calendar as the
organisation of the Grand Boucle has still not convinced the UCI that
the race will actually happen; there are still a number of issues to
be resolved. One of the main concerns is the race route and the
excessive long transfers between stages. A UCI official commented 'The
route that has been given to us so far is just not acceptable'."
Womenscycling.net: News
http://www.womenscycling.net/NewsPages2003/BoucleUpdate1.htm
Although that organization has not posted any further news items on
the status of that event, it is not listed on the August calendar that
is has published and regularly updates:
Womenscycling.net: Calendar
http://www.womenscycling.net/CalendarPages2003/RacesAug2003.htm
Additional sites:
Here is the home page of Womenscycling. net, which is a good source
for information about women's cycling events:
Womenscycling.net
http://www.womenscycling.net/
Here is the English language version of the official website of the
familiar men's Tour de France:
Le Tour de France
http://www.letour.fr/2003/us/index.html
Search Strategy:
I conducted various Google searches aimed at establishing the current
status of the Women's Tour de France and piecing together some of its
history, including:
"women's tour de france" history
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22women%27s+tour+de+france%22+history
"women's tour de france" "grand boucle"
://www.google.com/search?q=%22women%27s+tour+de+france%22+%22grand+boucle%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1
"women's tour de france" 2003
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22women%27s+tour+de+france%22+2003
"grand boucle"
://www.google.com/search?q=%22grand+boucle%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1
I am confident that this is the information you are seeking. If any
of the above is unclear, please ask for clarification before rating
this answer.
markj-ga |
