The “pride” of Marion Rousse, director of the Tour de France women: “I struggled so much on my bike”

Marion Rousse : It was fabulous. I was in the best place, in the car, just behind Demi Vollering who was trying to return the Tour. When she attacks just over 50 kilometers from the arrival of the last step, we tell ourselves that it is folded. But Niewiadoma regains strength and, above all, is supported by a few competitors. Then Vollering cracks a little in the Alpe d'Huez … and it is played for four seconds.

Amazing. I still have chills when I talk about it. I was with Christian [Prudhomme] That day. We changed our mind every two minutes, about the identity of the winner. It was fantastic. I do not remember having lived such an intense moment during my entire career.

Before that, there was the 5th stage and Lorena Wiebes, in particular, which does not wait half a vollerum after its fall. Should not, in part, this last epic act to a dysfunction in SD World?

Vollering may reconquer him under his new colors, with FDJ-Suez…

M. R. : Now it's good, we're talking about champions. Because the first year, I was asked if it would work, if it was coherent, if female cycling was ready, etc. My job was to say: “It's going to be great”, then the champions did the job themselves. I struggled so much on my bicycle, I saw that I could not live on it, I had to stop my career early … contribute to this boom, by this “passion work” of director of the Tour de France women with Zwift And by passing the right message to the media, it is a pride.

A stage in the Tour de France women ended at Markstein in 2022. It was the same a year later during the male event. How important is it important to establish a link between the two emanations of the Tour de France?

M. R. : We like to make bridges, evolve hand in hand. It's nice to write a story that continues, from one race to another. It's a bit like the Tour de France was our big brother. These winks are held, which sometimes have a historical dimension. If we have chosen to leave since the Netherlands in 2024, it is partly because the first big departure of the Male Tour de France to have held abroad was, already, in the Netherlands (in 1954, editor's note).

A final step in Paris, with a route similar to that of the online race of the 2024 Olympic Games, is it in your medium-term projects?

M. R. : Why not finish in Paris, but the tour should be longer. Over nine days, it is a racing format that requires keeping the suspense, to the end, and arriving in the mountains seems important to me. As for Montmartre… it was magnificent. It is in a corner of our head, but that implies many constraints that people do not imagine. Myself, I did not imagine them (smile). I was the first, in front of my television, to say: “Why are we going there? I know a great road there etc.” Since then, I have realized what the unique aspect of the Tour de France is well.

How did you concocted the 2025 edition route?

M. R. : What draws the course is the big start – in this case in Brittany (July 26, editor's note) – and the final arrival, which will take place in Châtel this year (August 3). From this postulate, with my publishing Franck, we land and we think about the route. We try to find a happy medium, so that the course is attractive, without killing the suspense after three days of racing. The first edition was a bit complicated. We were not known. We had to type at the doors of the communities, saying: “It would be good to welcome us”. From the second edition, they are the ones who made requests to us. Now, as soon as a community is postulating to have the tour of men, it passes the message for that of women. She candidate for both. This is a great news.

How much communities are ready to pay to be a city-stage? To what extent does the sum vary, between male and female TDF?

M. R. : ASO never communicates on prices. It is the partners and the communities who speak of it, if they or they decide it. For three years, prices have evolved and we have more and more candidates.

M. R. : It is important but, in my opinion, it is not the real fight. I knew female cycling at a time when I did not earn money. I was said to be “professional”, but I had only the name. I had to work to win a minimum wage. My will, when we introduced the Tour de France Women with Zwift, was that it follows, that girls could have a salary, living from their sport. The challenge was to obtain visibility, thanks to the best known race in the world. With the Tour de France, we talk to an audience of connoisseurs, initiates … but also to people who do not look at bikes throughout the year. This highlight was missing from female cycling. We did not know the champions before enjoying this formidable window. Now there is much more money in the teams, it has been structured. The financial balance remains precarious, but that has nothing to do with it.

So this amount of 250,000 euros is still relevant?

M. R. : Yes, we are still 250,000 euros in premiums in total. We did not want to skimp on everything that makes the beauty of the Tour. The Tour de France is a cycling race, but also all the infrastructures that go with it: the caravan, which is essential for us, the village village, which does not exist on other female cycling competitions etc. We wanted – and we always want – to have a standing worthy of that of the Male Tour de France, and, for that, we took up the codes. The possible increase in premiums will not be at the expense of this device. Now that the race is growing, I'm going to look at it. I would like it to evolve, but we cannot go faster, we have to be sustainable.

In terms of growth precisely, what does the fact of adding a step in relation to previous editions represent?

M. R. : Going from eight to nine stages is a big message sent, concerning the development of female cycling. The race works, it has the impression that we have existed for a long time, when it will only be the fourth edition. When we made this decision to relaunch a Tour de France women, our priority was that it was still there in a hundred years. We tend to that. You have to go step by step.

And in the very long term, do you think that the Tour de France women can last two, even three weeks?

M. R. : I would like the race to be longer and we would close no door. We have built good bases. It works so well that it is no longer possible to backtrack. It is satisfaction. But we have to advance at the same pace as female cycling, with teams that do not have such provided as their male counterparts. Taking too much space in the calendar is risking killing other races, which have existed for longer than us. We are not there for that.

In addition to this reflection which concerns your ecosystem, what about the physiological factor? Do you see in him a brake, if only minimal?

M. R. : This is not a physical problem. Women are capable of it. They train as much as men, go on an altitude internship …

Winner of the 2022 edition, Annemiek Van Vleuten was an illustration of this.

M. R. : So. She shared her training with boys. So I don't see a physiological limit. On the other hand, where the rub is, it is in terms of homogeneity. There is still too much difference in level between the 10th and the 30th, so that we go to three weeks at once. It is more and more homogeneous – as we saw during the 2023 edition for example, with a different winner at each stage -, but not yet as much as in the male peloton.

M. R. : We knew it was going to be complicated for the runners of this structure. It was not a gift to send them to the Tour de France women. When you don't have the level, you tarnish very quickly and you do not progress. It was a problem that one could not solve because it was under the UCI.

Interview carried out on January 9, 2025.