Fenix-Premier Tech boss calls for major women’s cycling calendar expansion - ‘The investments are too big’

The Fenix-Premier Tech manager spent the week following his women’s team and was struck by the crowds lining the roads. At some stages, he believes the atmosphere was comparable to the men’s race.

“There are stages where you can barely see a difference between the men’s and women’s races,” Roodhooft told Het Nieuwsblad. “That says a lot about how much women’s cycling has developed in five years.”

Public interest has grown rapidly, particularly since Pauline Ferrand Prévot emerged as a French Tour contender. The financial development of the sport, however, has created a more complicated picture.

While some teams still operate with limited resources, a small group of major organisations are investing heavily. Roodhooft believes this has created a peloton operating at three distinct levels.

“There are the smaller teams, the middle group that includes us, and then a handful of teams operating at a completely different financial level,” he said.

Teams such as Lidl-Trek and UAE have increased their commitment, while established women’s organisations including FDJ United-Suez, Canyon//SRAM and SD-Worx Protime already have significant budgets.

Fenix-Premier Tech are attempting to remain competitive by building around Puck Pieterse and Charlotte Kool, following a model similar to the men’s team with Van der Poel and Philipsen.

Roodhooft admits that competing in the women’s sprint market is particularly difficult because Lorena Wiebes remains far ahead of most of her rivals.

The commercial importance of running a women’s programme is also growing. Premier Tech considered a presence in women’s cycling an important condition before joining the team, while Fenix embraced the opportunity to become the women’s squad’s main sponsor.

Roodhooft believes major companies are increasingly reluctant to support organisations that only operate a men’s team.

“What self respecting company with the budget to enter cycling will still be satisfied with sponsoring only a men’s team?” he said. “None of them.”

Teams with both men’s and women’s programmes can share equipment, staff and logistics. Fenix-Premier Tech, for example, used the same ice baths during both Tours. Independent women’s teams must carry those costs without the same economies of scale.

That makes the limited women’s calendar a growing concern. Roodhooft estimates that the season currently contains only 25 to 30 commercially valuable racing days, including the Giro d’Italia Women, the nine day Tour de France Femmes and the leading one day races.

“The investments have become too big to accept the calendar as it is,” he said. “Salaries are being paid that are beyond all logic.”

Roodhooft believes a shortage of top level riders has driven salaries upwards as well funded teams compete for the same limited pool of talent.

“There are not enough talented riders to fill all the available places, which means the good riders are being paid too much,” he said. “Salaries are being paid that are beyond all logic.”

At the same time, he argues that too many races still fail to attract the media exposure needed to justify the growing investment in the sport.

“There are still too many races that generate too little media attention to justify the investments being made in women’s cycling,” Roodhooft said.

For the next phase of its development, he believes women’s cycling needs a broader and more commercially valuable calendar, greater depth in the peloton and more genuine competition in the sprints.

“We need more talented riders, a wider calendar and more competition in the sprint,” he concluded.