Demi Vollering can handle disappointment. The Dutch rider lost last year's Tour de France Femmes to Poland's Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney by just four seconds – never before has the Tour de France been decided by such a close margin. But the 2023 Tour winner is troubled by a bigger issue, namely that of inequality.

Female professional cyclists earn far less than their male counterparts.

At the spring classic Milan-Sanremo, Vollering said the fact that the prize money was "only 11% of that for the men" represented "a huge difference, and that's very disappointing. There's still a lot to do."

This difference also exists at the Tour de France. The winner receives €500,000 ($586,000) in prize money, while the female winner receives only €50,000. When asked about this, the director of the Tour de France Femmes reacted defensively.

"The question of prize money has been with me since the first edition of the Tour de France Femmes, and to be honest, it's a bit annoying," Marion Rousse told DW.

"It's difficult to compare a race with 21 days of........

© Deutsche Welle