‘It feels like we’re entering a golden era for women’s cycling’ — Zwift highlights the impact of the Tour de France Femmes

Five days from the start of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, the title sponsor has released a new report outlining the impact of the race since its modern revival.

From participation and public perception to pay equity and global visibility, the Women’s Cycling Report offers an in-depth look at how far the sport has come in just four years.

“For years, women’s cycling lacked the investment, media coverage, and exposure it deserved,” the report states. “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.”

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Zwift, a virtual cycling platform, has been instrumental in the Tour’s revival, positioning its support as part of a broader commitment to promoting gender equity in sport.

“Women’s sport around the world is being lifted by a tailwind of interest and investment,” said Kate Veronneau, Director of Women’s Strategy at Zwift. “Yet, until 2022, women’s professional cycling missed the crown jewel of the cycling calendar, the Tour de France.”

Zwift’s financial backing and four-year guarantee presented the race organisers, the A.S.O, stability and time to establish the event and drum up commercial interest for its continuation — a feat previous renditions of a women’s Tour de France all failed to do.

The 2022 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift was the first official Tour de France for women in 33 years, and already, it’s almost impossible to imagine a world where women don’t vie for the iconic Maillot Jaune.

Since its return, the event has become the most-watched race in women’s professional cycling, with a broadcast in 190 countries and consumption for more than 80 million viewing hours across seven key European nations in 2024 alone.

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Making a living as a pro cyclist

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Zwift’s report, based on survey data from over 5,000 people across the USA, UK, France, and Germany, points to broad shifts in perception and participation. In 2025, 85% of respondents said they believe professional cycling is a viable career for women. This perception is bolstered the rise in minimum salaries, which have risen from €15,000 in 2020 to €31,768 in 2025 for WorldTour riders. And a newly introduced ProTeam tier sets a minimum salary of €20,000, increasing to €24,000 by 2027. However, riders on teams below the UCI ProTeam level remain outside of these securities, as there are currently no minimum wage requirements for them.

According to data from The Cyclists’ Alliance, the average rider salary in 2024 stood at €40,000, with 15% earning €100,000 or more. The average team budget in the Women’s WorldTour has nearly doubled from €2.35 million in 2022 to €4.67 million in 2025.

Deep field, fierce competition

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The report also highlights increased competitiveness in the sport.

A” notable shift is the depth of talent across the board. Five or six years ago, there were a few dominant riders winning most of the races. Now, the top level is broader and more competitive,” said Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck), quoted in the report.

“The rising competitiveness has transformed the racing experience. There are just more riders who can win now. The level is so high, and the field is deeper than ever. It makes the races more exciting and less predictable.”

The 2024 women’s Tour came down to just four short seconds —the smallest margin of victory in Tour de France history— after seven days of racing, covering 950 kilometers and 13,566 meters of elevation. The race saw six different stage winners, representing five separate teams.

Pieterse was one of the most exciting playmakers of the event. She won a stage in a photo finish with Demi Vollering, she wore the polka dot jersey, the young rider’s jersey and going into the final stage, she was sitting second in the overall classification—not bad for a first-time stage-racer! In the end, she went home with the best young rider’s jersey and thousands of new fans worldwide.

Fans and visibility

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Cycling teams rely almost exclusively on sponsorships, so it is vital that the sport gets the exposure needed to bring in investments.

The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift attracts the biggest audience in women’s professional cycling, both on TV and social media.

Zwift reports that the Tour de France Femmes’ official social media channels grew to 2.6 million fans in 2025, an increase of 700,000 from the previous year. Video views rose to 74.4 million across all platforms, which is a 238% increase since 2022.

Of those that engaged with the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in 2024, 80% say they are now more likely to watch women’s cycling in the future, 60% of women said they felt inspired to ride in the future, and 17% said they went on to buy a bike.

For those who tune in for the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, the action did not disappoint with most viewers describing the racing as “exciting, “challenging and inspiring.”

“The sentiment around the race and women’s cycling illustrates that when women’s cycling is available to watch and follow, the audience is there to not only engage but be enthralled, motivated and inspired,” says Zwift,

After watching the Tour de France Femmes, 69% of women were inspired to ride more.

Commercial Interest

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Commercial interest in the sport also appears to be growing. In 2024, Nike signed a personal sponsorship deal with rider Demi Vollering and in January 2025, it partnered with the FDJ-Suez team to supply official lifestyle apparel. It’s now doing the same for the Visma | Lease a Bike team, home to stars like Marianne Vos, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot, Wout van Aert and Jonas Vingegaard.

While Zwift calls itself women’s cycling’s “biggest fans,” their investment isn’t purely passion-based either. Its return on investment is measured in brand value, visibility and affinity. That, and decreasing its own gender gap on the platform. The company reported that women now make up 23% of new subscribers on the Zwift platform, compared to just 18% in 2022.

“This race has exceeded everybody’s expectations and we’re thrilled with the results. The visibility we get from just the content created, the media, the attention of this race, the viewership is phenomenal. This puts our brand and our values front and centre,” Veronneau told Cycling Weekly in 2024 when the brand decided to extend its title sponsorship.

Remaining Challenges

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The report concludes by emphasizing that while the sport has made considerable progress, more work remains. Expanding access to coverage, supporting lower-tier teams, and sustaining grassroots participation are highlighted as ongoing priorities.

“Unsurprisingly, ease of access to live racing coverage has a direct impact on fandom,” it reads.

While fans in France benefit from free-to-air broadcasts, 36% of American respondents said they do not watch women’s cycling because it is not broadcast in their area. The fandom is therefore lower in the U.S. than in other key countries.

The report is part of Zwift’s ongoing campaign, Watch the Femmes, which aims to reimagine and reposition women’s cycling as a new kind of premier sporting event. The company hopes the momentum generated by the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift can continue to grow both audiences and opportunities across all levels of the sport.

“The data is there to illustrate that women’s cycling is growing, but we need to nurture and support that growth. Watch the Femmes is no longer about simply tuning in, it’s about showing up. It’s a global movement that invites us all to do our part to elevate women’s cycling. We need the strength of a collective force to ensure this momentum only picks up speed and creates opportunities at all levels of the sport,” states Zwift.

Read the full report, here.