PC, I have a different point of view. There's no demand from business for female sports because.... spectators are accustomed to watch male-only sports. Things can only
change if some people decide to break out the old habits.
Yep.
I stopped watching the Tour after
Prince Contador got caught cheating. It was just once too often, and all the romance, excitement and awe was taken out of watching the thing. After Pantani, Ulrich, all the others, betraying me with their cheating, I'd had enough. If I want to watch humans performing extraordinary feats of endurance using magic drugs, I can do that at work ta very much.
Show me women doing a clean two week grand tour, including mountain stages, time trials, the works, and dammit you'd not get me away from the telly. I'd bloody love that! Imagine the suffering, the determination, the sheer grit required, only it would be women instead of men? What's not to love there? I don't believe for a second that women wouldn't be capable. We're actually better at ultra-endurance events than men, and we can
so do pain.
The sponsors are just missing a trick here. The Tour has been a men's event since it started, and yes there've been a few women's Tours that have come and gone. None of them have been as demanding (that I can recall) as the Tour or the Giro. It's a vicious circle of no money, no airtime, no pros, and a harder fight all the way for women. If only there was an organisation with the money and vision to make this happen, it'd be so awesome.