Is the gender gap closing?

When her professional racing licence arrived in the post at her Brittany home in January, Audrey Cordon-Ragot might have been forgiven for punching the air in triumph. The French road race champion, who rides for Trek-Segafredo, had been making the case for years that she should be granted a professional licence, not an amateur one – a sentence that you might have to read twice.

Cordon-Ragot is, after all, one of the most recognisable faces in the women’s peloton. She has been riding as a pro for almost a decade, initially for Hitec before moving to Wiggle High5 then switching to Trek-Segafredo when the team was launched in 2019.

Only now, however, are licences denoting that the holder is actually a professional being issued by the French federation to women who ride for Women’s WorldTeams, of whom there are 11 in France.

‘It’s a big step for cycling in France,’ Cordon-Ragot says. ‘I had the feeling after we announced it that people had no clue that we weren’t regarded as professionals all along.

For every Jumbo-Visma, which launched its women’s squad this year, there are several teams employing female riders in name only

‘People were shocked, but it’s still the case in many countries. Not long ago it was the same in The Netherlands. I was talking about it with Ellen [van Dijk, her Trek teammate], and she told me