Ahead of the 2025 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift starting this weekend, Zwift has released a report revealing the impact of the women’s Tour since its revival four years ago.
Focusing on participation, media coverage, pay equity and more, the report highlights the momentum the race has built, the state of women’s cycling and its growth.
“For years, women’s cycling lacked the investment, media coverage, and exposure it deserved,” the report says. “In 2022 this changed with the introduction of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. With the much increased visibility brought to the sport by this race, it has done more than make history. It has transformed the future of the sport.”
The online training platform Zwift was a founding partner of the race. Kate Veronneau, director of women’s cycling at Zwift, said: “Women’s sport around the world is being lifted by a tailwind of interest and investment and yet, until 2022 women’s professional cycling missed the crown jewel of the cycling calendar, the Tour de France.”
Visibility equals interest
Although equivalent races to the Tour de France for women were held from 1984 to 2009, they often had limited media coverage and struggled with financial difficulties.
With Zwift’s financial backing, the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift launched in 2022 with live coverage in France and organisers ASO aiming to create a financially viable event that would still exist in 100 years.
Now, the race is broadcast in 190 countries worldwide. In 2024, 80 million viewed hours were consumed in seven European countries, with nearly 20 million viewers in France, according to the report.
Zwift says increased visibility from the race is helping to drive more interest in women’s professional cycling, according to the survey of 5,030 people in the USA, UK, France and Germany.
“Of those that engaged with the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in 2024, 80 per cent say they are now more likely to watch women’s cycling in the future. Perhaps more encouraging is that 17 per cent said they went on to buy a bike,” it says.
There is also a knock-on effect, with 41 per cent encouraging others to watch women’s racing and 30 per cent having either gone to watch a women’s race in person or planning to attend.
Yet, Zwift also highlights room for improvement. Only 6 per cent of people in the USA said they follow women’s cycling compared to 12 per cent in France. When asked why they didn’t watch women’s bike racing, 36 per cent in the USA said it isn’t broadcast where they live.18 per cent of people in the UK gave the same reason.
A viable profession
Zwift says 85 per cent of people now consider professional cycling as a viable profession women can aspire to. It says that minimum salary requirements have helped.
“In 2020, the minimum salary stood at €15,000 but has increased to €31,768 in 2025, for new riders who are team employees. 2025 also saw the introduction of a ProTeam category with a minimum rider salary of €20,000, which is set to increase to €24,000 by 2027,” the report says.
The Cycling Alliance also reports that by 2024, the average salary had risen to €40,000 with 15 per cent of those surveyed earning over 100k, even if there is a significant wage gap to lower teams where there is no obligation to any minimum wage.
Elsewhere, Women’s WorldTour team budgets have risen to an average of €4.67m, a significant increase from the 2022 average of €2.35m.
The increase in pay and budgets has been matched by an increase in racing quality, according to Canyon//SRAM zondacrypto’s Anastasiya Kolesava: “To be honest, it’s insane how everything has changed. So many riders are now super strong on the climbs and the speeds we race at are so much higher – even if there is generally a lot more climbing in races / stages now.”
Zwift highlights that the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift came down to only four seconds, the narrowest margin of victory in either the men’s or women’s editions, stating that this is “Illustrative of the depth and breadth of talent within the peloton”.
Growing fandom
The lack of viewing options means more people rely on social media to follow the race when compared to men’s racing, but Zwift says social media also points to a growing fanbase.
“The inaugural Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift caused the biggest spike in social media following for both individual riders and teams, far outperforming any other event in 2022," the report reads. “Across the eight days of the race, the Instagram and Facebook profiles of the top 35 female riders grew by 8.6 per cent.”
The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift's social media channels have continued to grow, now totalling 2.6m followers – an increase of 700,000 since 2023.
And growing participation
Increased media exposure, social media growth and higher salaries have benefitted the top levels of women’s cycling, yet Zwift says there are green shoots elsewhere in the male-dominated sport.
“Crucially, younger individuals are interested in cycling – a younger generation is helping support UK cycling participation, with the number of cyclists under 35 on Strava rising by over 80 per cent since 2019 and cycling activity logged by women has risen by nearly 20 per cent,” Zwift says.
Puck Pieterse, rider for Fenix-Deceuninck, says: “With landmark events like the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift and an expanding calendar of women’s races including major spring classics, the sport continues to gain momentum and attract a growing audience.
“We’re well on our way. The growth in coverage and investment is incredible. It really feels like we are entering a golden era for women’s cycling, but we have to keep pushing."
