Women's cycling still battling the gender gap

"It's a disgrace that there is no women's under-23 category, not even at the world championships," fumes Denmark's Emma Norsgaard. "We need this category in order to make the step up to the elite level."

Norsgaard knows what she's talking about. The 22-year-old herself can hold her own with the very best, finishing 12th in this year's world championships time trial, but she's the exception.

Unlike her brother Mathias (24) and her partner Mikkel Bierg (22), both also professional cyclists, Norsgaard and her female peers don't have the benefit of an intermediary age category.

"My brother reckons he would never have made the leap to the top without under-23 races," she said. "The step up from the juniors is huge."

Durning the world championships in Flanders, several colleagues echoed Norsgaard's thoughts.

"It's a huge problem in women's cycling," said 31-year-old Dutch star Anna van der Breggen. "The quality at the elite level is very high and hardly anyone from the juniors can compete."

As a result, young female riders tend to drop off and give up in disappointment.

"Many quit the sport by 21, 22 or 23," said defending champion van der Breggen. "And not because they don't have the talent to be top riders, but because the gap is simply too big."

The demands have got so loud that the world governing body, the UCI, has been forced to react.

"There will be an under-23 women's champion at the next world championships in Australia," promised UCI president David Lappartient, admitting however that there won't be a separate under-23 race.

"But it's a first step," insisted Lappartient. "There will be one race but two podiums."

A young peloton

It's about time. At many races, the peloton is already made up predominantly of younger riders. In the official UCI rankings, the 392 under-23s make up the largest group, according to statistics compiled by CyclingNews, followed by the 23-26 age bracket (250 riders), the 27-30-year-olds (184) and finally the 31-34 category (146).

For Swiss rider Marlen Reusser, the current time trial runner-up, it's not just under-23 races which are missing, but racing teams, too.

"What we need above all are development teams," the 30-year-old told DW. "But it starts with the small, banal things. If it were up to me, we would have the Men's World Tour and the Women's World Tour. That would make it clear in people's heads: we have both, men and women, and men are not the norm."

Nevertheless, Reusser did say she had noticed a positive trend in the development of women's cycling in recent years, from the quality of the races to the professionalization of the structures and the growth in media attention.

Mixed relay: a potential game changer

When it comes to gender equality in cycling, it's the new mixed relay race which has the most potential to be the most impactful. The discipline combines three men and three women from one country and calculating a cumulative time.

"It's a great format," says Reusser. "It creates teams and gets the fans involved, too. It's a platform which shows that there are men and women in cycling, and that's key for the future."

The UCI has also increased the minimum wage for female riders from €15,000 per season to €20,000, rising to €27,500 by 2023. It's still significantly less than the €38,000 minimum wage on the Mens World Tour but the gap is closing.

Boosting the business model

And more and more event organizers are taking an interest in women's cycling, too.

"The business model is growing," says Tomas van den Spiegel, organizer of the Tour of Flanders and member of the world championships organizing committee.

"At the start, we had to put pressure on the broadcasters to show women's cycling and we shot the footage ourselves. But now, the TV companies are coming to us."

One significant difference remains: while the sale of television rights for the men's races is a vital source of income for the Tour of Flanders, the rights for the women's races are still issued for free.

"At some point, we'll start charging for the women's rights as well," promises van den Spiegel.

That would be another important step on the road to gender equality in cycling.

This article has been adapted from German.