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The inaugural Tour de France Femmes cycling race generated average audiences of 2.25 million domestic viewers per stage on France Télévisions’ public service broadcast channels, for an average audience of share of 26.4 per cent across the race’s eight days.
Organisers confirmed viewership in France peaked with 5.1 million tuning into FTV during the final day to watch Dutch rider Annemiek van Vleuten wrap up her second stage win and the yellow jersey on 31st July – scoring a 45.6 per cent audience share. In total, the marquee women’s cycling event drew 20 million domestic viewers.
Outside of France, 75 million hours of coverage were broadcast across seven European countries, while 14 million viewers tuned across Eurosport’s multi-territory coverage.
In the Netherlands, Van Vleuten home country, the Tour de France Femmes drew a 45 per cent audience share for public broadcaster NOS.
Across its digital platforms, Tour de France Femmes video content reached 22 million viewers. On social media specifically, the event’s following increased by 90 per cent over the course of the race to reach 209,000 followers.
The Tour de France Femmes’ digital platform had 1.5 million unique visitors, with 2.8 million overall visits and more than 600,000 using the live race centre.
“[The Tour de France Femmes] been two years in the making for us,” Zwift chief executive Eric Min told Velonews. “Certainly with ASO, there has been a lot of planning to bring this to life. So it was great to see it really unfold. I think it just exceeded everyone’s expectations in terms of public interest and support is.”
He added: “There’s just so much buy-in from everyone. It’s not just female cyclists, but there are a lot of men who really support women’s cycling and it’s the interest in the data that just came out and the increase in broadcast coverage [is shown].
“I think it’s exceeded a lot of people’s expectations in terms of how people’s interest is in the women’s sport. So I’m very happy about it.”
