The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift was the single biggest women's cycling event in the 28 years Cyclingnews.com has been covering women's cycling.
The eight stages of the race helped July deliver a record 700,000 users engaged with women's content on the site, who consumed 2.3m pageviews. This comes on top of the fifth record year in a row for coverage of women's cycling on Cyclingnews.
Average daily Tour de France Femmes traffic on Cyclingnews exceeded that of the men's Giro d'Italia this year and Cyclingnews Women's Editor Kirsten Frattini said: "The overall success of the event showed an appetite for a women's Tour de France stage race that has been building since the introduction of La Course in 2014, the storylines around that event, and those who've spent years campaigning for a women's event with the same iconic leverage, influence and magnitude as the Tour de France."
Frattini put this growth down to increased professionalism through the introduction of the Women's WorldTour and minimum salaries for riders, helping the growth of teams and events, while "the biggest influence of all is live television broadcasting requirements since 2020, which has helped bring in a bigger audience and really showcase the sport."
Cyclingnews has been covering the build-up to the event for the past 12 months as part of its commitment to women's cycling, creating 145 articles including pre-race countdown features, exclusive news and live reporting of every stage.
Sister site CyclingWeekly.com also created 80 articles about the Tour de France Femmes, generating over 350,000 pageviews over the eight stages of the event.
Cyclingnews has covered women's racing since it launched in 1995 and covers .1- and .2-level events, Pro Series and the Women's WorldTour alongside the UCI Road World Championships, gravel, cyclo-cross, track and mountain bike racing.
Providing in-depth race coverage that includes results, reports and analysis, live coverage, breaking news, compelling features, original and exclusive interviews, investigative reporting, commentary, tech and galleries, the site is also running athlete blogs from the likes of World Champion Elisa Balsamo and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Rukhsar Habibzai.
In addition, Cyclingnews aims to highlight essential women's cycling-relevant storylines, along with stories that are bigger than the sport itself.
"Our commitment to women's cycling for nearly three decades has led to impressive audience growth," said Frattini. "In the past five years alone, our women's cycling content has consistently shown record annual figures through strategic budget and editorial plans as the sport gains unstoppable momentum."
So far in 2022, Cyclingnews has seen 7.5m pageviews and 2.7m users across 611 articles related to women's cycling.
The full-time staff of 12 journalists, including Frattini and former Ella CyclingTips editor Simone Guiliani, all contribute to the site's in-depth women's content, which also includes contributions from a host of expert writers and riders such as Women's WorldTour correspondent Lukas Knöfler and women's cycling content contributors Matilda Price and Issy Ronald, along with Amy Jones, Maria David, Isabel Best, and with newest contributions from Andy McGrath, Shane Stokes and Fran Reyes.
Cycling Weekly, led by editor Michelle Arthurs-Brennan has, like Cyclingnews, a rich history of covering women's cycling. Its Tour de France Femmes coverage was spearheaded by North American editor Anne-Marije Rook and experienced contributor Owen Rogers. Anne-Marije was a founding editor of Ella CyclingTips, while Owen has reported on women's racing for Cycling Weekly for a decade.
As well as covering the biggest races, Cycling Weekly is also a leading resource for buying, training and general riding advice for female riders. Fitness content is led by Anna Abram who, along with editor Michelle, Anne-Marije, Hannah Bussey and contributors including former pro Emma Silversides, is a key member of Cycling Weekly's testing team.
Following the unique and historical month of racing in July, Cyclingnews will continue its comprehensive coverage of the biggest races on the calendar; Postnord Vårgårda WestSweden, Tour of Scandinavia, GP de Plouay, Simac Ladies Tour, Challenge by La Vuelta, the UCI Road World Championships and Tour de Romandie.
Women's cycling in July on Cyclingnews
- 2.3m pageviews
- 1m sessions
- 700,000 users
- 145 articles
Source: All quoted traffic data from Google Analytics
