The two young girls were not yet twelve, and they were wildly excited as they searched for their own pedal stars. They were in Pau, the finish town of the Tour Femmes, on the final Sunday in July, when the sky felt more like autumn than midsummer. Their names were Nora and Haizea. Arriving from Pamplona with their parents, two and a half hours away, they managed to squeeze into the limited space along the team buses, proudly wearing their cycling kits. They spoke softly about someday racing in the Tour de France when they were grown up.
They did not glimpse the glare of fame in the faces of Jonas Vingegaard or Tadej Pogačar, but their Navarrese parents felt pride watching their daughters grow and dream big, much like legendary riders from the same region. “They want to be cyclists. We support them, and when we ride with them, our job is simply to shield them from traffic,” one parent noted.
The girls knew the names of Demary Vollering and Annemiek van Vleuten, and they lingered with curiosity near the bus of the Spanish figure Mavi García, who did not start the last stage due to exhaustion and illness after the tour. The Battle on the Tourmalet became a day when many women, not just professionals, gathered on the planet’s most iconic mountain of cycling.
They attended the event at TDFF2023 with their parents from Pamplona because, they believed, someday they would join the tour. Nora and Haizea hoped to become professional cyclists and carry that dream with them as they grew. The scene captured a moment of wonder as a generation watched and imagined a possible future in the sport.
The Women’s Tour in the final week of July emerged as a historic triumph, going beyond the inaugural edition held in 2022. ASO, the company behind major cycling events on the international calendar including the Vuelta and a suite of French races, reported record numbers in television audiences, social media engagement, and online traffic for the Tour Femmes, outpacing prior bike races in visibility and reach.
The Tour Brand
France views the Tour brand as a powerful label that adds value to everything it touches, serving as a symbol of the country’s sporting culture. The French audience shows that gender is not the defining factor; what matters is the enduring appeal of the Grand Boucle, celebrated in the same uniforms and accompanied by the same support vehicles that helped the men three weeks earlier. The tradition and spectacle remain the same, and that consistency helps sustain broad interest across audiences.
Television audiences were solidified by a well-orchestrated broadcast strategy. The women’s event aired on public television channels alongside the men’s Tour, scheduled from Sunday to Sunday, July 23–30. The Tourmalet climb, slated for Saturday, July 29, drew prime-time attention to ensure strong viewership. In France, the event reached about 4.3 million viewers with a 34.6 percent share.
On social media, fans shared highlights and reactions, spreading the excitement across platforms. The event continued to generate engagement after the week, with daily viewership numbers that underscored a sustained interest in the women’s race.
Across the Netherlands, the excitement ran even higher. Demary Vollering and Annemiek van Vleuten, both Dutch, competed in a fierce duel atop Tourmalet, captivating the audience and contributing to a peak in Dutch television viewership. In Spain, interest in the event helped maintain strong overall engagement across televised sports during that period.