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44-448: Over the years, the races struggled with various issues including financial difficulties, limited media coverage, sexism and trademark difficulties with Amaury Sport Organisation (the organisers of the Tour de France). The last Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale took place in 2009. In 2014, following criticism and campaigning from the professional peloton, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) -

88-473: A first class honours degree in 2005. She started cycling at university after suffering an injury from cross-country running. At Cambridge she won university sporting blues in cross-country running, triathlon and cycling. After a surprise fourth place in the national road championship in 2005, she was signed by UK national team Team Fat Birds UK and rode in the British team supporting Nicole Cooke in

132-537: A 120 km solo escape, the first of many wins from solo breakaways. She represented Britain in the 2007 UCI Road World Championships , finishing 8th in the time trial and 9th in the road race . This earned Great Britain one of their places in the 2008 Summer Olympics . In 2008, she won the Trofeo Alfredo Binda UCI Road World Cup in Italy after another solo breakaway. She finished 23rd in

176-588: A European middle-distance duathlon title in 2017. Pooley was a founding member of Le Tour Entier , which campaigned for a Women's Tour de France and improvements to women's cycling generally. Born in Wandsworth , London, Pooley grew up in Norwich , where she attended Norwich High School for Girls and the sixth form of Norwich School . She began studying for a mathematics degree at Trinity Hall, Cambridge in 2001 before switching to engineering and graduated with

220-597: A key role in helping England teammate Lizzie Armitstead win the road race gold medal. Pooley made a return to competitive cycling in October 2015 when she competed at the Chrono des Nations time trial, where she finished sixth. In December 2015 she announced that she would aim to compete for Team GB in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro after being approached by British Cycling's technical director Shane Sutton , who had studied

264-452: A reduced field. In 2008, the race was six days and seven stages. However, in 2009 the race was only four days long with only 66 riders, after a planned race start and three stages in Britain fell through, leading winner Emma Pooley to joke that the race was "more of a Petite Boucle than Grande." The race was discontinued after the 2009 edition. [km] French women's stage racing continued after

308-485: A silver medal, and placed sixth in the Women's time trial . Pooley took a step back from pro-racing when she signed for the long-established, but non-UCI registered, Swiss-based Bigla Cycling Team for the 2013 season in order to concentrate on completing her PhD in geotechnical engineering . In a severely reduced season, she missed the 2013 UCI Road World Championships . Pooley managed to win four UCI-ranked races including

352-473: A women's Tour de France. Following substantial media coverage, and a petition signed by over 100,000 people, the organisers of the Tour de France (ASO) launched La Course by Le Tour de France in 2014. This race would be held in conjunction with the Tour de France, with the first edition taking place as a one-day race on the Champs-Élysées in advance of the final stage of the men's race. In subsequent years,

396-448: Is Jean-Etienne Amaury , the son of Philippe Amaury and Marie-Odile Amaury , and grandson of EPA founder, Émilien Amaury . The Tour de France was instituted by the newspaper L'Auto in 1903. The paper was closed after World War II because of its links with the occupying Germans and a new paper, L'Équipe , took over. L'Équipe organised the Tour and in 1965 the newspaper was acquired by Émilien Amaury. L'Équipe organised

440-898: Is three-times a British time trial champion and in 2010 also won the British road race championships . Pooley retired from professional cycling after the 2014 Commonwealth Games to concentrate on triathlon , duathlon and long-distance running, having won the Lausanne Marathon and the Swissman triathlon the previous year. She went on to win the ITU Powerman Duathlon World Championships at Powerman Zofingen in September 2014 and again in 2015. On 16 December 2015, Pooley announced that she would be returning temporarily to cycling, seeking to qualify to represent Great Britain at

484-640: The 2022 Tour de France in July 2022, with the first stage taking place on the Champs-Élysées. The men's tour director, Christian Prudhomme stated that lessons must be learned from the failure of previous events like the Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale, and the goal of ASO is to have a financially sustainable event, one "that will still exist in 100 years". The Tour de France Femmes does not succeed these historic races, with ASO stating that

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528-552: The Giro d'Italia Femminile , both achievements that she would repeat in 2012. Following the discontinuation of the Garmin Cervélo women's team at the end of 2011, Pooley began riding for the Dutch team AA Drink–leontien.nl which, in turn, wound up at the end of the 2012 season. At the 2012 Summer Olympics she competed in the Women's road race , helping teammate Lizzie Armitstead to win

572-446: The Giro d'Italia Femminile , but finished the race in fourth place in the general classification after losing the race lead due to her poor descending, which she improved after the 2009 season with the help of her coach Tim Williams and British Cycling psychiatrist Steve Peters . 2010 saw several of Pooley's greatest successes. She won her first major stage race in May, the final edition of

616-594: The Ironman Zurich event. After her retirement from cycling she won the 2014 Powerman Duathlon World Championships in Zofingen , Switzerland at her first attempt, setting a new course record and finishing half an hour ahead of the second-placed finisher. In February 2015 Pooley won the Challenge Philippines triathlon with a margin of more than ten minutes over the next competitor. She went on to finish ninth at

660-608: The Olympic road race on 11 August 2008, where she rode in support of Nicole Cooke 's successful gold medal bid but her greatest success of the summer came in the time trial on 13 August, where she won the silver medal behind American Kristin Armstrong . In 2009, Pooley signed to the Cervélo Test Team, where she remained until their disbandment at the end of 2011. She won the 2009 national time trial championships and took wins for

704-636: The Tour Cycliste Féminin International de l'Ardèche has been held as a multi day stage race in southeastern France in the Ardèche region. For several years, this was the only international level multi day stage race in France. In 2013, professional cyclists Kathryn Bertine , Marianne Vos and Emma Pooley and professional triathlete Chrissie Wellington formed an activist group called Le Tour Entier (“the whole tour”), to petition ASO to launch

748-759: The Tour de l'Aude , the longest-running event on the UCI women's calendar. She went on to win another top-level stage race in June, the Giro del Trentino Alto Adige-Südtirol . She also won two UCI Women's Road World Cup one-day races, the La Flèche Wallonne Féminine and the GP de Plouay , and earned a rainbow jersey by winning the time trial at the Road World Championships . She was British national time trial champion for

792-612: The University of Edinburgh and the University of Hull . Her teammates were international rower Tom James , novelist Adam Mars-Jones and actor Dan Starkey . Between February 2018 and March 2019, Pooley worked at Global Cycling Network as a presenter. Pooley has lived in or near Zürich in Switzerland since 2006, and in December 2013 completed her doctorate in geotechnical engineering at ETH Zurich , supervised by Sarah Springman ,

836-616: The road race at that year's world championships , but crashed out of the race. She rode for the same trade team in 2006 when they were based in Belgium and registered as an international-level UCI Women's Team under the name Team FBUK. She signed with the Switzerland-based Team Specialized Designs for Women for 2007, with whom she won her first UCI race, stage 3 of the Thüringen Rundfahrt der Frauen , after

880-588: The 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, as she felt the unusually mountainous time trial course on offer played to her strengths. In June 2016, Pooley came out of retirement and re-signed for her former team, Lotto–Soudal Ladies , in time for the 2016 Giro Rosa . After racing in the Olympic time trial and road race she returned to duathlon with two further world championship titles at ITU Powerman Duathlon World Championships at Powerman Zofingen in September 2016 and 2017 as well as

924-501: The 2022 race is the "1st edition" of Tour de France Femmes. Amaury Sport Organisation The Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO and also A.S.O.) is a private company , founded in 1992, that is part of the privately-owned French media group Éditions Philippe Amaury (EPA). ASO organises the Tour de France and other cycling races, as well as golf, running, sailing and off-road motorsport events over 250 days of competition per year, with 90 events in 30 countries. The president of ASO

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968-595: The Grande Boucle ceased after the 2009 edition, with at least two further stage races - the Tour de l'Aude Cycliste Féminin and the Route de France Féminine . As with the Grande Boucle, neither of these races had a direct relationship with the Tour de France. Following further financial and organisational difficulties, the Tour de l'Aude Cycliste Féminin and the Route de France Féminine ended in 2010 and 2016 respectively. Since 2003,

1012-768: The Ironman Asia-Pacific Championships in Melbourne the following month. Subsequently, in the summer Pooley won the long course race at the Alpe d'Huez Triathlon and the Embrunman triathlon, and successfully defended her Duathlon world title in September. In March 2016 Pooley took a comfortable win at the Powerman Asia Duathlon Championships in Malaysia, where she finished with a 16-minute lead over

1056-602: The Olympic road racing courses and felt that Pooley would have a good chance of winning a medal in the time trial and of helping Lizzie Armitstead to win the road race. She also confirmed that she would continue to compete in triathlon and duathlon competitions in 2016. Pooley made her first appearance in a mass start road race for two years in April 2016 for the British national team at the Women's Tour de Yorkshire , where she helped teammate Alice Barnes to fourth place. In June 2016 Lotto–Soudal Ladies announced that Pooley had rejoined

1100-564: The Ride London event. The event takes the form of a Le Mans style start as 500+ smartly-dressed competitors have to unfold their bikes and completed eight lap circuit around St James Park. On 8 July 2020, Pooley set a new Everesting women's record by climbing the Haggenegg climb (6.8 km with an average gradient of 13%), near Schwyz in Switzerland, ten times in a time of 8 hours 53:36. Her ascent (and descent) covered 129.8 km, and beat

1144-619: The Tour de France or the ASO. The race lacked stable sponsorship and with the location of stages determined by locations willing to contribute, there were long transfers between stages. Until the 1998 edition, the race was known as the Tour Cycliste Féminin, but the Société du Tour de France (now part of the ASO), organisers of the men's Tour de France , claimed that infringed their trademark. Consequently,

1188-446: The men's race and not having a challenging enough parcours . ASO were also criticised for not doing enough to promote the race. ASO stated that logistical issues mean that a men's and women's Tour de France would not be able to be staged simultaneously, and that any race must be financially sustainable. In June 2021, ASO announced that they would launch a new women's stage race, Tour de France Femmes. The 8 day race would take place after

1232-515: The mountains classification at the Giro d'Italia Femminile. Pooley announced during the 2014 Commonwealth Games that she would retire from cycling after competing in the Games' road race in order to concentrate on competing in long-distance triathlons and mountain running . Following her retirement announcement, Pooley took the silver medals in both the women's road time trial and road race , and played

1276-492: The name of the name of the event was changed to Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale for the 1999 edition. The race was not held in 2004 due to organisational difficulties. It returned, albeit smaller in size and scope, in 2005. The previous races were 10 to 15 stages; later ones had five and stayed in one region. The race also received a lower classification by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), and had

1320-471: The one-day Trofeo Alfredo Binda World Cup race for a second time, again after a lengthy lone breakaway. She broke her collarbone in training on 12 April so was unable to defend her Flèche Wallonne title and did not race again until the women's invitational time trial at the Tour of California on 20 May, in which she placed fifth. Later in the year, however, she won the hilly Tour de l'Ardèche stage race in France and finished second to Marianne Vos in

1364-457: The organiser of the Tour de France - launched a one-day race for the professional peloton ( La Course by Le Tour de France ). In 2022, La Course was replaced by Tour de France Femmes , a 8-day stage race in the UCI Women's World Tour . The launch of the Tour de France Femmes was praised by the media, campaigners and the professional peloton. In 1955, the first edition of a women's Tour de France

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1408-508: The previous female Everesting record of 9 hours 08:31 set by Hannah Rhodes on the Kirkstone Pass in England on 8 June 2020. Pooley won the Lausanne Marathon in October 2013 with a time of 2:44:29 hours, which placed her inside the top 20 fastest British women in 2013. She has also enjoyed success in triathlon, finishing as top female at the inaugural Swissman triathlon and coming fifth in

1452-420: The race took place in a variety of locations such as Pau , Col de la Colombière and Col d'Izoard in conjunction with the men's race, as the ASO argued that this was the "best way to shine a light on female cycling". The race was initially praised for the exposure gained by 'sharing the stage' with the Tour de France, however La Course was criticised for not being a "full Tour de France", being overshadowed by

1496-527: The race until it was taken over by its parent company, ASO. As of 2022 , ASO claimed to be the world leader in bicycle race organisation with 132 days of competition each year. As of 2022 ASO organises the following cycling events: Emma Pooley Single-Day Races Emma Jane Pooley (born 3 October 1982) is a British-Swiss athlete in multiple sports. A former professional cyclist who specialised in time trials and hilly races, she later transferred to endurance running, duathlon and triathlon , and

1540-402: The race was run alongside the men's event, as a curtain raiser, with both races using the same finishing location (the women's race ran over a shorter distance for each stage). In 1989 Jean-Marie Leblanc , director of the Tour de France, halted the race in its current format, citing the economic cost of organising the race with limited media coverage and sponsorship being generated. As a result of

1584-648: The races dissociation from the Tour de France, the name was changed to the Tour of the EEC Women. [km] Following the change in race format, calendar position and name of the race to the Tour de la C.E.E. féminin , the race ran for a further four editions albeit with no connection to the Tour de France, through to the 1993 season. [km] In 1992, a new race was created, the Tour Cycliste Féminin , organised in August by Pierre Boué, but again with no connection to either

1628-703: The runner up. Following her appearance at the 2016 Olympics, in September she took her third consecutive long-distance duathlon world title with a winning margin of eleven minutes. Pooley added another international duathlon title when she won the European Powerman Middle Distance Duathlon Championships in Sankt Wendel in May 2017, finishing almost nine minutes ahead of the second-placed finisher. She followed this up by winning her fourth back-to-back Long Distance Duathlon World Championship in September, finishing 27 minutes ahead of

1672-565: The second year running and also took her only national road race champion's jersey. She finished the year 5th in the 2010 UCI Women's Road World Rankings , the highest end-of-year ranking of her cycling career, and received one of the British Olympic Association 's Athlete of the Year trophies, recognising her performance that year as the best by any British cyclist of either sex in any Olympic cycling discipline. In March 2011, Pooley won

1716-689: The second-placed finisher. In 2021 Pooley became Swiss champion in long-distance trailrunning (50 km), and went on to take the overall win at the 100 km Ultra Tour de Monte Rosa. In November 2022, she raced for the Swiss national team at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Thailand, finishing 11th in the 80 km event. On 2 January 2015 Pooley was a member of the winning team on Christmas University Challenge , representing Trinity Hall, Cambridge who defeated Balliol College, Oxford ,

1760-515: The six-stage Tour Languedoc Rousillon in May. In September 2013, Pooley joined with professional cyclists Kathryn Bertine and Marianne Vos and professional triathlete Chrissie Wellington to form an activist group called Le Tour Entier (“the whole tour”), to petition ASO to launch a women's Tour de France. Pooley signed for the Lotto Belisol team for 2014. She claimed her third national time trial champion's jersey and won three stages and

1804-573: The team for the remainder of the 2016 season, and that she would be part of the team's squad for the 2016 Giro d'Italia Femminile with a role as a domestique for Claudia Lichtenberg . At the Olympics, Pooley rode in the service of Armitstead in the road race , whilst in the time trial she finished 14th, just over two minutes down on winner Kristen Armstrong. On 28 July 2018 Emma won the Brompton World Championships, which ran as part of

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1848-523: The team in the Coupe du Monde de Montreal , GP de Plouay , and Grand Prix Costa Etrusca one-day races, and the final edition of the Grande Boucle Féminine , once dubbed "the women's Tour de France". Due to financial issues the 2009 Grande Boucle was reduced to only four stages, leading Pooley to joke that it was "more of a Petite Boucle than Grande". She also wore the leader's jersey for three stages of

1892-431: Was four-times world champion in long-distance duathlon. She competes in long-distance and uphill mountain running and has represented Switzerland at the world trailrunning championships. She won an Olympic silver medal in the time trial in 2008 and was world time trial champion in 2010 . She has won six UCI Women's Road World Cup one-day races, as well as several stage races including the ten-day Tour de l'Aude . She

1936-425: Was held as a one-off event. Organised by Jean Leulliot, with the event made up of five stages with 41 athletes starting. The race was won by Manx cyclist Millie Robinson . There was, however, no race organised for 1956 onwards. In 1984, the Société du Tour de France, organizer of the men's Tour de France, decided that it would introduce a women's version of the Tour - Tour de France Féminin . From 1984 through to 1989

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