SECOND LIFE
The agonisingly slow development of the women’s elite racing calendar has had various negative effects, but there’s one that’s only obvious when you try to figure out precisely where one of the greats fits into the pantheon. The lack of equality of opportunity for men and women makes it impossible, basically, to directly compare – for example – Eddy Merckx and Marianne Vos, but it’s also well nigh impossible to measure up successive generations of female cyclists.
To take the most obvious instance, while our guest editor Lizzie Deignan can hold her head high as a winner of Paris-Roubaix, that chance was denied to all her predecessors. Similarly, there are no simple measures when it comes to measuring, say, Elsy Jacobs against Jeannie Longo, or Beryl Burton against Vos, no more than there are when comparing Merckx and Vos. It’s not like asking whether Jacques Anquetil was greater than Miguel Indurain: Jacobs and Burton didn’t have the opportunities to show their talent at the highest level that were enjoyed by Vos and Longo. They just didn’t have the races.
The top end of the men’s calendar has been largely fixed for half a century – monuments, grand tours and world championships – but the women’s calendar has never been complete. The waters are muddied still further by the various versions of the women’s Tour de France. As an athletic endeavour, how will next year’s Tour de
