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Lizzie Armitstead in the 2014 World Championship road race (copyright Britishcycling.org.uk)Lizzie Armitstead says there should be a minimum wage for female cyclists
Britain’s top female road rider, Lizzie Armitstead, says that there should be a minimum wage for women’s riders, just as there is for their male counterparts.
The 25-year-old from Otley, West Yorkshire was speaking to Sky Sports News HQ at the end of a season that has seen the hugely successful launch of the Friends Life Women’s Tour in Britain, plus the inaugural edition of the one-day race in Paris, La Course by Le Tour.
That race, held on the final day of the Tour de France on the same Champs-Elysées circuit the grand tour finished on later that afternoon, will return next year, it was confirmed today.
Meanwhile yesterday, Vuelta a España director Javier Gullén confirmed that there are plans to hold a similar event on the final day of the Spanish race in Madrid next year.
Armitstead, who rides for the Dutch team Boels-Dolmans, believes the women’s side of the sport is moving in the right direction, but says more needs to be done.
"It's kind of the chicken and egg scenario,” she said. “It's media exposure, it's sponsors. At the end of the day, cycling is a business, so we have to be able to offer something to a sponsor, and without exposure, that's going to be difficult but that's where the UCI perhaps has to be a little bit stronger.
"There have been some good realistic steps and good progression. I think the International Cycling Union (UCI) has put in some good ideas and some good strategies but obviously there's still a long way to go.”
La Course came about as a result of the Tour Entier campaign launched last year by riders including Emma Pooley and Marianne Vos, who won the inaugural edition.
But Armitstead said: "I think before we talk about having a three-week Tour de France, which has been a massive talking point this year, we need to talk about the professionalism of it.
“You can't expect a woman who's holding down a part-time job to train for the biggest race in the world. She has to have a minimum wage and I think it's something that is pretty crazy that we don't have that."
Currently, the minimum annual wage for a UCI WorldTour rider other than a neo-pro year is €35,000, and typically will be supplemented by bonuses. Top riders, of course, can earn millions.
It’s a world away from the women’s side of the sport; this year Emma Pooley, a former world time trial champion and winner of some of its biggest races, retired from road racing to focus on the bigger money available in triathlons and long-distance running.
She has also called on professional teams to consider funding and running women's teams alongside their existing men's teams.
If professional men's teams are now going to have development teams, women's teams should too, she believes.
UCI president Brian Cookson made women’s cycling one of the six key pillars of his electoral campaign last year, but acknowledged that finances are an issue.
He said: "You can't just develop professional sport by passing rules about minimum wages. There has to be money coming into the sport," he said.
"If companies want to sponsor the sport, they have to feel there is a value in sponsoring the competitors whether males or females and so it’s important what we do at the UCI level and also at national federation level is get behind women’s cycling, support it as much as we can, and get as many sponsors in as we can.
“We need to raise the media profile, so there is more of a value, so we can then offer more full-time professional careers to more women than is the case at the moment.”
Armitstead, winner of a silver medal behind Vos at the Olympic road race at London 2012, has just finished the most successful season of her career, taking gold in the same event at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow after winning the season-long UCI Women Road World Cup.
"I'm really happy with the season as it's been a massive success for me," she reflected.
"The Commonwealth Games was a real goal because of what it means to the public, and what it means to my family, but personally wining the Cycling World Cup has been a bigger achievement for me.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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14 comments
The argument of 'it works for golf therefore...' doesn't really work in isolation - you need to consider the history in each case.
From some ferreting around on the web, some dates to put things into context:
The (originally predominantly male) PGA was founded in 1901.
From demands of women golfers the WPGA was established in 1978
In the USA, the LPGA was established in 1950.
So I'd suggest that women's golf has had between 36 and 64 years, depending on your choice of continent, to get where it is now, so cycling could several decades to catch up.
It could well be that if women's pro golf was starting out now, it would have a similar issue - the sponsorship/coverage/commercialisation landscape has probably changed hugely too.
Rugby Union only went pro a few decades ago, but the difference was it was already well-supported/covered.
Similarly its taken several decades for womens football to get more prominence, after the FA banned them from their grounds in the '20s
In 1969 the women's FA was founded, in 1983 it was invited to affilate - like a County Association - to the FA. Took another 10 years to form/get a separate committee, and til 97 for the FA to release plans to develop the womens game at all levels.
Unless you really want womens pro cycling to take another couple of decades to reach any kind of prominence, thats why something in the catch22/chicken-egg loop needs to be broken.
Lets take the 2012 Olympic road race as an example.
The Mens race was dull, made worse by eventual victor....a waste of 6 hours of my life.
The woman's race was shorter, but more aggressive, action packed and exciting to watch. it is down to the UCI to promote their sport and i think woman's cycling has a lot to offer.
Not disagreeing re women's race - or women's racing in general - but courses had huge impact at London 2012. Obvious GB would try and do a Copenhagen, equally obvious there would be attacks on last climb of Box Hill.
Big group including some of world's top riders gets away, Cancellara crashes in Richmond Park, GB lead desperate chase, eventual gold and silver medallsists get away on Putney High Street (always strikes me as bizarre writing that).
First five hours of the men's road race may have been boring, but the last hour was absolutely gripping.
Some funny comments on this one. Joeinpoole, Road.cc haven't paid you to be a stooge by any chance?!
Couldn't agree more. I personally find some womens cycling more exciting than the mens. It's shameful that in the 21st century that this is even an issue. Cycling itself seems rife with sexism, misogyny and outdated opinions. Just ask Joeinpoole.
You could argue that it is feminism to say that women should be treated equally, and paid relative to the revenues of their events. It will surely ruin the small teams trying to run their business on a shoestring because there isn't the tv money available.
Wow, fans have only been calling for this for a number of years.....
What fans? If they actually existed in serious numbers then they wouldn't need to be "calling for this".
Sport at the professional level is just business. The money paid to players is generated from the interest of the public ... which then extends to sponsorship ... and then on to tv deals, which is where most of the big money lies.
If women's cycling can't generate the the money then clearly the participants don't deserve to be paid it. Same with any other business __ or indeed any other sport.
I don't understand why some female cyclists think that they should somehow be treated differently and that market-forces should be artificially distorted for their benefit. Why?
As was said in the article, this is a chicken & egg situation, it's up to the governing bodies of all sports, in this case the UCI, to promote the womens version of the sports and make sure the top athletes in each sport make a reasonable living. No one says top female athletics competitors or tennis players shouldn't get a decent wage and as a result their major events are held in conjunction with the major male events with TV revenues shared, Rugby Union & Football are starting to go that way, surely cycling could do their bit and ensure that the revenues from the big televised events go towards paying a decent wage to the top female cyclists or as in the article require all the male pro teams to run a womens team & pay decent wages. The simple fact is that womens cycling can't generate the money on it's own because of lack of support from UCI and because of the inherent sexism of the people running TV stations and if you think there's no demand for womens cycling just think back to the early days of Channel 4 when it broadcast the sports unwanted by the big channels, sports like NFL, tri-athalons & even the TdF, all major viewing now.
So, how are the 1970s? Would you recommend them as somewhere to visit? It would only be a short trip mind, I wouldn't want to stay there permanently like you have.
your belief in the all-conquering power of market forces must be comforting. but the big money top tier of professional sport supports the other tiers in pretty much every discipline. Governing bodies exist to ensure that it isn't 'just business' and that the sport continues to develop. some do a better job than others.
Really? It might just about happen in football because FIFA is awash with money but I doubt that it applies anywhere else.
Ladies golf is a perfect example. They've generated their own tour, their own sponsors and their own income. Good for them and they are doing increasingly well. My only wish is that we had more tv coverage of it ... but it will come.
Why can't female cyclists do the same as their golfing counterparts?
Unlike FIFA, who host the WC, the UCI don't actually own or host the major, income-generating events of their sport like the TdF or PtR. They merely sanction them. So therefore they don't have the resources to divert to the lower levels.
The TdF is a commercial event. All of you saying how much you want women's cycling to be the equal of mens ... just have to stump up the cash, take the risk, organise it ... and make it so.
Massive commercial opportunity for you there Dave. Are you up for it? Or are you too worried that the dreaded 'market forces' will conspire against you?
Actually, Women's football was already a very popular and well attended sport but the FA saw it as a threat and essentially shut it down by banning them from using the grounds and facilities of FA member teams.
The ban was lifted in the 70s but by that point it had been in place long enough to cause the lasting damage to the sport which they are just pulling away from now.
You didn't watch the Giro Rosa, Women's Tour of Britain, Sparkassen Giro, GP de Plouay, any of the Women's World Cup or even the WT then?
They were all very well attended.