The recent success and high visibility of women’s professional bike racing is a breakthrough in what has been an overwhelming male and unflinchingly traditional sport. The Tour de France Femmes, launched in 2022 under the auspices of the Tour de France’s owner ASO, has become the highlight of the women’s season and in the euphoria surrounding this highly professional venture it is to easy to forget that there once was another Tour de France for women put on by the ASO four decades ago. On April 7, 2025, selected cinemas across Canada will be showing “Breakaway Femmes,” a documentary about this race run between 1984 and 1989 and featuring the very feisty women who were there.
There had been a non-ASO women’s version of the Tour in 1955, which attracted 41 participants in a race of five stages, covering a total of 373 kms, entirely contained within Normandy. Racers of five nationalities took part and it was dominated by the British riders. The stages were hard-fought and in the end although only four racers failed to finish the whole thing was treated as a kind of curiosity and not repeated. But in 1984 ASO took up the challenge of adding a “real” Tour de France for women.
As the film shows, 1984 was a milestone as it marked the first time that the Olympic Games would have a road race for women. Unfortunately, the date of that race was in conflict with the ASO’s new Tour de France Féminin. At that time the Olympics only permitted amateurs to compete so there was no issue for the men of the Tour de France. However, as the women who would enter either race were entirely amateur this meant that national federations sent their top riders to Los Angeles for Olympic glory while what were perceived as “B team” riders were invited to go to France. Riders passed up for Olympic selection certainly had something to prove.
The 1984 race featured 6-rider teams from the United States, Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, along with two French teams. The format of the race was that it would essentially precede the men’s TdF on the same day but that the women would ride a shortened course and only 18 stages overall. However, they would be riding over all the same climbs as the men so the race was no cakewalk. (It should be noted that the current Tour de France Femmes has been eight stages, to be extended to nine in the next edition.)
As a groundbreaking event, the 1984 race is much of the focus of the film. There are interviews with riders who featured, notably ultimate winner Marianne Martin of the USA and Stage 8 winner Canadian Kelly-Ann Way, and one is struck by the determination of all these women in circumstances that would be considered deeply demoralizing. National “support” seemed pretty minimal: some of the teams had no mechanic or coach or even spare wheels and more than one bike per rider. In the case of the US and Canadian riders at least they had to pay their own expenses (ASO provided food and accommodation, I believe). It must have been mortifying that after the race was over the UK and Canadian team members would have to return their jerseys to their national federations!
The race at first seemed to be a sideshow before the men would come through but through their combativeness (only a single rider failed to finish due to a broken collarbone) the women gained a grudging acceptance. The Netherlands team, the overwhelming favourite, was not to have things its own way after controlling initial stage and there was some exciting racing. On the podium in Paris there was the unprecedented sight of the winner of the men’s and women’s Tour de France races standing on the podium together—although winner Laurent Fignon could not avoid comments about women’s cycling not being attractive. And while the men could vie for the Combativity Prize the women could have a day of shopping in Paris as recipients of the Elegance Award. 1984 seems a long time ago in some ways. Women’s prize money is still less than men’s but even then the US$800 for winning the overall (US$100 for a stage win) must have been embarrassing. When Marianne Martin returned home she had debts of $12,000.
In any event the race was so successful that the next year saw an expanded peloton, with 66 riders on 11 teams. China decided to send a team and one of the team members, Luxia Chen, reflects on her experience. The Chinese riders were all track and field athletes, with limited cycling experience and so it seems plenty of crashes ensued. They did not even have a translator so beyond sign language communication was an issue. The director, Eleanor Sharpe, has to be commended for tracking down the participants for the interviews as many left the cycling scene decades ago and were not what would consider the stars of cycling.
Things were to change in the next editions of the race, highlighted in the film by the intense rivalry between two giants of women’s cycling: Maria Canins of Italy and Jeannie Longo of France. Canins, who was 36 and a mother when she won her first Tour de France in 1985, was a powerful climber, while Longo’s strength was as a sprinter. All the remaining editions of the Tour would be divided between them, with Canins winning in 1985 and 1986, with Longo second both times, while in 1987 through 1989 she came second as Longo won in each of those years. The interviews with both show somewhat divergent personalities.
Longo is one of cycling’s most noteworthy (and controversial) figures, with an astonishing palmarès that includes 25 national titles and 13 World Championships, the One Hour Record, along with seven-time participation at the Olympics. There is a great moment in the film from 1987 when French national champion Marc Madiot goes on at length confronting Longo about how women have no place in cycling: “Yes! Yes! I’m against women’s cycling…this sport must have an aesthetic side!” He goes on: “You! You are ugly! I am sorry.” Madiot, winner of two editions of Paris-Roubaix, one Tour stage and one national championship, is currently manager of the WorldTour team Groupama-FDJ. Interestingly, the women’s team sponsored by FDJ, FDJ-Suez, boasts on its roster Demi Vollering, who may be the highest-paid female road cyclist.
The Tour de France Féminin ended after the 1989 edition, although there were subsequent equivalent races under different names until 2009. Besides trademark issues with the “real” Tour de France, there were financial issues, lack of media support and the sexism that dogs women’s sport in general. But goaded by several prominent cycling gadflies, primarily Kathryn Bertine, Emma Pooley and Marianne Vos, the ASO grudgingly put on a one day event in 2014, La Course by Le Tour de France, that let the women race on the Champs-Élysées before the men came through for their final stage. This was followed by other limited events in different parts of France until finally a real stage race for women was launched in 2022.
Some of those women who raced in 1984 were there to see the start of the revival of the Tour de France with a new generation—a generation of riders who won’t have to return their jerseys, pay for their own training camps or make do with inferior equipment. In “Breakaway Femmes” we have a great documentary, unafraid of displaying intrateam rivalries and rider disappointments with its mixture of interviews of riders and experts along with period video, but at the same time revealing just how big an accomplishment it was for these women, struggling with things we take for granted now. to be able to do what they loved to do. Six years of races that should not be forgotten.
“Breakaway Femmes: The Women Who Conquered the Tour de France”
90 minutes, 2025, Australia
Directed by Eleanor Sharpe and Produced by Nickolas Bird
Demand Film is presenting theatrical screenings of BREAKAWAY FEMMES in cinemas across Canada on Monday April 7. Tickets are only available at https://ca.demand.film/breakaway-femmes/
Please note that the Ottawa screening is presently sold out but more showings will be added shortly.
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