If there was any doubt about the ability of women's cycling to attract widespread audience interest, the official audience figures released by the Tour de France Femmes Avec Zwift on Wednesday put it to rest once and for all. More than 5 million French viewers watched the finale alone, which was won by Dutchman Annemiek van Grooten (Movistar) on the summit of La Super Blanche des Belle Filles.

According to official Tour de France femmes, there were a total of approximately 20 million viewers in France over the eight days of racing, with France 2 and France 3 averaging 2.25 million viewers per stage and a 26.4% rating.

In addition, Eurosport drew 14 million viewers and a staggering 45% average rating in the Netherlands. Dutch riders won all but one stage of the race, which took place July 24-31, and dominated the individual jerseys, from the race leader's yellow to the green points jersey won by Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma).

The women's version of the Tour de France returned this year after 33 years, but prior to its reintroduction, Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme bluntly warned that "if it goes into the red, it will perish like the women's Tour in the 80s."

Audience interest in the broadcast of the Tour de France Femme, along with enthusiastic spectator turnout along the route and strong response at various content access points, including 22 million video views on official platforms and 2.8 million visits to the race website, were seems to be a clear positive indicator of success.

Across social media platforms, the most viewed video of the race was the last kilometer of stage 3, won by Cecilie Uttrup-Ludwig of Denmark on French team FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope.

Because the race was broadcast for two hours each day, the air time to accumulate viewership per stage was considerably shorter than for the men, but still well above the minimum 45 minutes of live coverage mandated by the Women's World Tour. The quality of the broadcast was also several steps above the standard of women's cycling.

France Télévisions' live coverage of the eight-stage Tour de France Femme lasted 22 hours, while its live coverage of the 21-stage Tour de France lasted over 100 hours.

A comparison of viewership for the women's and men's races shows that France 2's Tour de France averaged 4 million viewers and a 41.3% audience share, while the Tour de France Femme had 2.25 million viewers for France 2 and France 3 combined and a share was 26.4%. The men's race peaked at 8.4 million viewers for stage 12, which finished on the summit of the Alpe d'Huez on Bastille Day, and the top viewership share was 62.8% for stage 11, the Granon Pass. The Tour de France Femme also peaked at 5.1 million viewers and 45.6% viewership, both in the final stage.

Van Vleuten secured a lead of more than three minutes on stage 7 and attacked for the long haul. This was the first of two important GC days in the mountains for the race, which started on the Champs-Elysées the same day the men's competition ended.