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The 600 per cent gender pay gap? The women and fans fighting to change prize money in cycling

So furious were cycling fans at lack of equal prize money ahead of Strade Bianche that they decided to take matters into their own hands

Elisa Longo-Borghini (left to right), Chantal van den Broek-Blaak and Anna van der Breggen — Crowdfunding campaign highlights appetite for more live women's cycling on television
Elisa Longo Borghini (left), the Italian national champion, donated her €5,000 share of the crowdfunded winnings Credit: AP

What do you get when you cross a global pandemic with a fraction of the riches that men’s sport enjoys? Crowdfunding for equal prize money in women’s sport. 

So furious were cycling fans ahead of last weekend’s Strade Bianche that they decided to take matters into their own hands, clubbing together to raise €26,973 for the top five riders in the female peloton.

That significantly bumped up the €6,200 organisers had planned on dishing out to the top-five finishers in the women’s race, compared to more than €31,000 set aside for the top five in the men’s event.

Cycling’s thorny issue of equal prize money has always sparked debate but in an age where women’s sport is growing in profile, to see organisers humiliated by a GoFundMe page was somewhat refreshing to see. 

If anything, the success of the crowdfunding initiative — which initially set a target of raising €5,000 — underpinned the huge support there is for the women’s peloton and its quest to be valued in the same way as its male counterpart. 

At Omloop Het Nieuwsblad earlier this month, Italian rider Davide Ballerini took home €16,000 while world champion Anna van der Breggen pocketed a measly €930. That’s a whopping 600 per cent difference. 

It prompted Britain’s Lizzy Banks, who only learned of the jaw-dropping discrepancy when flicking through the event’s road book the night before the race, to speak out. “I just don’t understand, are we seven times less valuable than the men’s race? I don’t think so,” Banks told Eurosport. “I think we put on a great, great show — so why is this happening? It happens time and time again, and we’re really fighting a losing battle here, why wouldn’t you change this?”

It is a pertinent question given how, in some countries, TV coverage of the women's race pulled in almost double the audience of the men's race. In Holland, the female event attracted approximately 330,000 viewers (a 21.5 per cent share of the total TV audience) compared to the 170,000 viewers (an 18.6 per cent share) for the men’s event. In part, this is because the men's race was missing Dutch favourite Mathieu van der Poel, while the women's race featured Dutchwomen Anna van der Breggen and Annemiek van Vleuten — but it is yet more evidence that women's sport need not be overshadowed by the men's equivalent.

Those stats are all the more remarkable given how only the last 36km of the 126km women’s race was actually shown live. “This is a huge result,” Daam Van Reeth, a cycling enthusiast and economics professor at Belgium’s KU Leuven university who disclosed the figures, wrote on social media.

One wonders whether such figures will precipitate change. According to the event’s CEO, Tomas Van Der Spiegel, plans for equal prize money in 2023 are in the pipeline and defending the disproportionate amounts on social media, he struck a somewhat sour note. “If equal pay is all you are asking for, you clearly have no idea about the challenges women’s cycling is still facing,” he wrote. 

No, perhaps we don’t. But the frustration that cut through Banks’s testimony suggests female riders are ready to be stood up and counted for rather than being inherently grateful for crumbs off the table. At some events they already are; Britain's most prestigious men's and women's races — the Tour of Britain and the Women's Tour — have had equal prize money since 2018.

Some argue that directing funds towards TV coverage is a more worthwhile investment than simply throwing money at equality. But whatever way you dress it up, one-sided prize pots dictated by organisers — rather than cycling’s governing body — are always going to create unwanted headlines. 

After finishing second at Strade Bianche, Italian road cyclist Elisa Longo Borghini was so taken aback by the generosity of the cycling community that she decided to donate her €5,000 share of the crowdfunded winnings to women’s cycling projects. Announcing her decision on International Women’s Day, it was a selfless act from the Trek-Segafredo rider.

"On this special day we think it’s important marking a new step in the long and difficult road of women’s empowerment,” Longo-Borghini, a team-mate of British rider Lizzie Deignan, wrote on social media.

That road will continue to remain a windy one in women’s cycling, but as the events of the past fortnight have shown, action — specifically crowdfunding — speak louder than words. 

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