Women’s World Tour 2022: 25% of invited teams are MPCC members

If we compare the men’s World Tour with the women’s, the difference is striking: 25% of invitations for women are made up of teams adhering to the MPCC, whereas the ratio is 96% for men’s World Tour events. And yet, the MPCC sees very encouraging signs.

For men, for several years, the MPCC has been working to ensure that invitations to teams not belonging to the World division are exclusively attributed to member teams of the movement.

For a long time, a large number of organizers have spoken out in favor of teams adhering to this philosophy. This includes ASO, whose Cycling Director, Christian Prudhomme, has repeatedly reaffirmed that his choice would always be for teams imposing stricter ethical rules, in order to prioritize the credibility of our sport. This stance has also led to almost all second-division teams joining the MPCC.

For women, the process is only just beginning to stabilize on the basis of a project set up by the UCI, with the creation in 2016 of a World Tour similar to the one that has existed for men since 2005. The women’s calendar has been structured with the appearance of new races and, as a highlight, the creation this year of the Tour de France Femmes. The first division of teams has expanded significantly, from eight teams in 2020 to fifteen for 2023. As these World Teams are automatically selected for World Tour events, the number of invitations for teams completing the field for these events is therefore gradually decreasing.

At the same time, the MPCC has recorded its first adhesions: to date, fourteen women’s teams have joined the movement (including six World Teams). But out of about fifty continental teams (all potentially authorized to apply for an invitation to World Tour events), only eight are currently members of the movement.

The MPCC therefore encourages both World Teams and all continental teams to adhere to the values defended by the movement. It welcomes Christian Prudhomme’s commitment to apply the same conditions for invitations to women’s events as for men’s. The MPCC hopes that, following ASO’s lead, other World Tour event organizers will adopt the same policy.

Source: Press Release

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