Former cyclist Marion Rousse, director of the Tour de France women, dismissed the criticism made against the riders of the competition.
For the past five years, she has been an integral part of the team at Tour de France commentators on the channels of the France Télévisions group. She may have ended her career as a professional runner in 2015, Marion Rousse, crowned French road cycling champion in 2012, now shares his expertise on cycling with viewers alongside his two acolytes, Laurent Jalabert and Alexandre Pasteur. Recently, the partner of the double world champion cyclist Julian Alaphilippe obtained a prestigious position: that of Director of the Women’s Tour de France, created this year, and which ends this Sunday, July 31. A competition that unfortunately was the target of misogynistic attacks. Indeed, as reported France infoInternet users and, more broadly, spectators of the Tour de France women made fun of the falls of some runners on the stages of the race. Some detractors have even argued that minor accidents would be more numerous in the women’s peloton than in the men… “It’s due Sexismquite simply”, retorted Stephen Delcourt, general manager of the FDJ-Suez-Futuroscope women’s cycling team, interviewed by Franceinfo. For her part, Marion Rousse obviously could not not leave these derogatory reviews unanswered and defended the Tour riders.
Marion Rousse defends the runners
The director of the Tour de France women told Franceinfo that she preferred to focus on “the 95% of people conquered” rather than on “5% who remain, whohave fun on social networks saying that girls can’t ride“. For Marion Rousse, this discourse is quite simply “ridiculous“. “We have almost nothing to say to them. We don’t have to justify ourselves”added the cyclist, before recalling that “falls are part of cycling, there always will be”. Especially since men do not escape these falls either. “We forget too quickly last year’s men’s Tour, with the many crashes in the first week, like in Pontivy”, underlined Marion Rousse. The latter also did not fail to castigate those who point the finger at a supposed lack of experience of the runners: “When men fall on the Tour, they are brave heroes, and women it would be because they don’t know how to ride ?”