Health problems had hurt her fitness, and she hadn't been selected to the U.S. "I didn't prepare for the race," Martin said. Martin barely got on the team for the Tour de France This year's Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift offered around $250,000 in prize money, including some $50,000 for winner Annemiek van Vleuten of the Netherlands. "There's a different feeling about that now," she added, noting female athletes' campaign for equitable salaries and prize money in cycling and other sports. I don't care if they're staying in a really nice place. "I didn't have different expectations, so it didn't bother me at all. And the male riders also stayed in better hotels and ate better food. "The French didn't think we'd finish the race," Martin said. The arrangement required the women to conquer the Tour's famous leg-draining climbs and summit finishes in the mountains of the Alps and Pyrenees. The women raced on the same days as the men, riding the last 60 kilometers of the same route ahead of the male cyclists, "which was very cool," Martin said, "because the crowds were already there and it was just amazing." The 1984 women's race had 18 stages covering around 1,000 kilometers - roughly a fourth of the men's mileage. Both riders finished in yellow, meaning they were the overall winners, but Martin won around $1,000. She shared the podium with men's champion Laurent Fignon, who won more than $100,000. Asked to describe the gap, Martin replied, "It was huge." Martin and her fellow riders had a very different experience in 1984 compared to the male athletes. There was a gap in how women were treated, on and off the course Martin, who lives in Colorado, was the surprise winner of the Tour de France Féminin, the first women's version of the venerable race from its long-time organizers (a 1955 event was set up by a journalist). But that's the big thing about having the women's Tour, is that other women can see women racing and they can visualize themselves doing it." "And I didn't even think about it until I'm saying this right now. But when I watch the women's race, I'm like, 'I miss that so much,' " Martin told NPR.
"I can watch the men's race and not feel like this.
Anyone wondering how big a deal it is that women once again have their own Tour de France should consider this: Marianne Martin - who won the race in 1984 - says this year's event made her want to be back out on the road, racing again, for the first time in years.
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