YEP Says: Yorkshire on a cycling crusade
AS tennis again ties itself up in knots over gender pay, the contrast with cycling could not be greater after it was revealed that female riders in the forthcoming Tour de Yorkshire could earn more prize money than their male counterparts.
A bold move which also guarantees the presence of Otley’s world champion Lizzie Armitstead in the field, this announcement totally changes the terms of the debate and has the potential, in time, to be one of the most significant in the history of female sport.
If cycling can make the game-changing move and respond to calls for parity, why can’t other sports – and professions – follow its lead? It was best summed up by Welcome to Yorkshire’s very own Sir Gary Verity who said: “What I don’t want is for my daughter to say to me ‘I want to be a professional cyclist’ and for me to have to answer ‘how will you earn a living?’” There is no excuse now.