When Kate Veronneau was a professional cyclist, she remembers the salaries for women were “abysmal” and it was a struggle to find women’s editions of major races.
And even when these competitions did pop up, there was little chance they’d be televised or compensate the female athletes equal to their male counterparts.
“These conditions meant that a lot of my peers weren’t granted the opportunity to race at all and the ones who did weren’t able to secure any form of visibility to keep their careers going,” Veronneau tells Women’s Agenda.
A college basketball player, Ivy League Rookie of the Year and captain at Brown University, Kate transitioned to cycling after college.
While she’s since put her professional cycling dreams to rest, Veronneau is now working to increase opportunities for female athletes through her role as the director of Women’s Strategy at Zwift.
She’s determined to increase the visibility of women’s sport and ensure a fair pay grade so that “women don’t have to sacrifice their athletic careers for financial stability”.
From early on in her career at Zwift, Veronneau says she felt the support that she hadn’t gotten in her race career.
“It’s a dream job for me to be in a position to invest in and influence the future of women’s cycling,” she says.
“I’ve got leadership and co-workers who share my passion and believe in our mission. It’s our goal to open the door to as many women as we can into competitive cycling, whether that’s in races, in the industry or in boardrooms– more visibility and representation.”
From the very first competitions that Zwift ran to provide women with professional cycling contracts, this commitment to furthering women’s sport has evolved into the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
While the Tour de France, on June 29, has become the ultimate challenge for the best male cyclists in the world, female cyclists are gearing up for the equally challenging Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, running from August 12 to 19.
This year the 8 stage women’s event will have its third edition, with the route starting in Rotterdam, continuing through Belgium and finishing atop one of the most legendary climbs, the Alpe D’Huez.
Sponsoring women’s sport
The misconception that women’s sport is overlooked due to a lack of fan interest has already been widely disproved. Here in in Australia, the Matildas’ unprecedented campaign in the Women’s World Cup continues to prevail.
In the cycling world, Veronneau says they’ve seen strong interest and viewership across the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift with the 2022 edition reaching 23.2 million live viewers which was matched in last year’s edition.
“These events see the question of interest completely redundant, and quite honestly leaves no space for excuses around funding,” says Veronneau.
“The root of the issue isn’t interest, it’s funding, and it’s the reason why we’re seeing women’s competitions like the Tour de Femmes avec Zwift crop up much too late in the game.”
Veronneau says that “sponsorship really is a deciding factor in whether women’s sport gets off the ground at all” and the visibility in women’s sport “creates a flow-on effect throughout our society where young girls see women given opportunities to compete at international levels”.
Thankfully, more sponsors are coming to the table which is why Veronneau says the top riders in the Tour de Femmes avec Zwift have already seen an average 10 per cent salary increase from the 2022-2023 season.
Outside of funding, the two main hurdles to elevating women’s sporting competitions lie within media representation and breaking misconceptions around the ability of women’s sport to garner the same level of excitement and engagement as men’s sport.
Growing the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift for the next generation
As a huge fan of the sport and former racer, Veronneau says it’s been a privilege to give audiences the opportunity to see how incredible women cyclists are, both on and off the bike.
“It’s been so amazing to see the next generation of women come through the sport and to be awarded the opportunities to race and develop fan bases,” she says, noting that Demi Vollering, last year’s Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift winner who just signed with Nike, is a good example of this.
“It’s these stories and the top notch calibre of these women that seriously inspire me,” says Veronneaua, adding that “while it’s exciting to see the current stars rise, there’s nothing better than seeing young girls at the race, maybe dreaming that they could be there one day.”
And when it comes to parity and opportunity across the competition, Veronnau says the Zwift team’s fight never stops.
“This includes having longer broadcasts, or even broadcasting the full event, and increasing the number of stages so that we’re in line with the men’s competition,” she says, noting that this helps drive up the value of teams and riders to improve access to investment and sponsorship opportunities.
“If we can ensure that every athlete competing in the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift doesn’t have to have a second job to help support herself, then I think that’s a pretty great goal!”