Sadhbh O’Shea has covered the Tour de France as a journalist before. But never like this. The historic Tour de France Femmes this past summer gave O’Shea a front-row seat to the overwhelming success of the women’s race around France. And like the riders on course, O’Shea and her fellow women journalists made history too by pumping out an intimidating amount of high-quality reporting and storytelling.
In this episode of the Slow Guy on the Fast Ride podcast, O’Shea, who now writes for VeloNews Magazine, recounts the ups and downs of the Tour de France Femmes. She also gives us a sense of what it’s like to cover not one, but two Grand Tours in the middle of July in France. From press rooms to mountain top finishes, O’Shea was there to take it all in and lend her perspective to us.
While the races themselves felt familiar in function, O’Shea says many of the differences were subtle but impactful. The presence of more women in the press room was an obvious positive change. But the lack of certain infrastructure and procedure present at the men’s race was conspicuously absent at the women’s race. O’Shea gives us a rundown of the good, bad, and ugly ad the first Tour de France Femmes.
Of course, COVID still isn’t done with us. And O’Shea had a bout of it herself in between the men’s Tour de France and the Tour de France Femmes. O’Shea tells us how COVID affected this year’s race, not only for the riders, but also for the journalists covering the events. As it turned out, COVID had an outsized impact on the men’s race, but not as big of an impact on the women’s race.
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Theme music: “This Year” by Angela Sheik