If there was ever any doubt about whether or not or not girls’s biking might entice widespread viewers curiosity, the official viewer numbers launched by the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift on Wednesday have categorically laid them to relaxation. The finale alone, the place Dutch rider Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) took victory atop La Tremendous Blanche des Belles Filles, was watched by greater than 5 million French viewers.
In whole there have been almost 20 million viewers in France throughout the eight days of racing, with a median per stage of two.25 million on France 2 and France 3 delivering an viewers share of 26.4%, in response to official Tour de France Femmes figures.
Past, there was a attain of 14 million viewers on Eurosport and Within the Netherlands, the typical viewers share tracked at an enormous 45%. Dutch riders dominated the Tour profitable all however one of many levels of the July 24 to 31 race and taking out a clear sweep of the person jerseys, proper from the yellow of the race chief to the inexperienced factors jersey gained by Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma).
The ladies’s version of the Tour de France returned this 12 months after a 33 12 months absence, nevertheless on its reintroduction it was preceded by a blunt warning, with Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme saying that if it misplaced cash it could find yourself like the ladies’s Tour within the 80’s and die.
The viewers curiosity within the broadcast of the Tour de France Femmes, together with enthusiastic roadside attendance and a powerful response throughout varied content material entry factors – together with 22 million video views on the official platforms and a pair of.8 million visits to the race web site – appear a transparent constructive indicator of the success of the occasion.
Throughout social media platforms, probably the most considered video of the race was the ultimate kilometre of stage 3, gained by Denmark’s Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig who rides for French workforce FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope.
🏁 🇩🇰@CUttrupLudwig wins a tricky dash between favorites in @villeepernay.⏪ Relive the final kilometre of the third stage.🏁 🇩🇰@CUttrupLudwig remporte un dash entre favorites à @villeepernay.⏪ Revivez le dernier kilomètre de la 3ème étape du #TDFF.#WatchTheFemmes pic.twitter.com/Gp0AzAzA0VJuly 26, 2022
The race was broadcast for 2 hours every day, subsequently had significantly much less time on air to build up the stage by stage viewer numbers than the boys’s occasion, however that also far exceeded the Girls’s WorldTour mandated minimal of 45 minutes stay protection. It was additionally a high quality of broadcast leagues forward of the norm for ladies’s biking.
There have been 22 hours of stay protection of the eight-stage Tour de France Femmes on France Télévisions in contrast with greater than 100 hours of stay protection of the 21 stage Tour de France.
Looking at how viewer numbers in contrast between the ladies’s and males’s race, the Tour de France common viewers on France 2 sat at 4 million viewers delivering 41.3% viewers share, whereas the Tour de France Femmes viewers of two.25 million throughout France 2 and three delivering a 26.4% viewers share. The height for the boys’s race was 8.4 million viewers for stage 12, which completed atop Alpe d’Huez on Bastille Day and the highest viewers share of 62.8% got here on stage 11 to Col du Granon. The height of 5.1 million viewers and 45.6% viewers share for the Tour de France Femmes each got here on the ultimate stage.
Van Vleuten rode over the road in yellow on that ultimate stage, having secured a tough to beat race lead of greater than three minutes on stage 7 with a long-range assault. That was the primary of two pivotal GC days within the mountain for the race, which began on the Champs-Élysées the identical day that the boys’s occasion concluded.
