Marion Rousse in a TOUR interview: "Bernard Hinault's successor will be a woman"
Joscha Weber
· 26.07.2025
About the person: Marion Rousse (France)
- Born: 17 August 1991 in Saint-Saulve (France)
- Professional career: 2010-2015
- Teams: ESGL 93 - GSD Gestion (2010), Vienne Futuroscope (2011-2012), Lotto-Soudal (2013-2015)
- Important successes: French champion (2012)
- Instagram: @rousse_marion
TOUR: Marion Rousse, the women's Tour de France is only in its fourth year and yet has already grown to nine stages. Time to take stock: where does your project stand?
Marion Rousse: The balance sheet is good. At our last meeting (TOUR 7/2022, editor's note.) was about the premiere of the Tour de France Femmes and completely different issues. At the time, we had to prove that this was a sustainable project. Because there had already been a Tour de France for women in the past. But it never had a coherent concept and therefore went bankrupt. From the moment we said to ourselves at ASO that we wanted a women's Tour de France, we knew: This time it had to work. We wanted a race that would still be around in 100 years' time. And at least in the fourth year we still exist. We have taken up everything that also characterises the men's Tour: the Tour is a free spectacle that comes to the people, with an advertising caravan in front. And in sporting terms, the women proved with strong performances that they have earned their place on television. The premiere was still about whether the women's tour would work. Since the second edition, it's been about completely different questions: it's about the heroines of the country road. I am now mainly asked: Who will win the Tour? So I have achieved my first goal.
TOUR: Last year, the Tour experienced a heart-stopping final in Alpe d'Huez with a dramatic battle for seconds between Kasia Niewiadoma and Demi Vollering. Is it possible to plan for such a scenario?
Marion Rousse: (Laughs) No. I would like to say that we are geniuses, but no, that's not possible. As organisers, we dreamed of having a race scenario like the one we experienced last year. Up on the summit of Alpe d'Huez, perhaps the most beautiful finish in the world, it was a matter of just four seconds that decided the Tour. When Demi Vollering won the stage, we waited spellbound for Kasia Niewiadoma to find out whether she would win the Tour or not. That was great. But it's clear to anyone who knows anything about cycling that this doesn't happen every year. The race is unpredictable. We create the route, but then it's the riders who make the race. Sometimes you design a stage, think about a scenario and say to yourself: This is going to be great! And then the stage is a flop. And then there are other stages where you don't expect much, and then incredible things happen. That's the magic of cycling.
TOUR: Based on this experience, do you have a clearer idea of what you need to do as an organiser to ensure an exciting and open race?
Marion Rousse: The special thing about women's cycling is that it develops so quickly. What worked in the first edition no longer works in the fourth edition. The peloton is no longer the same, the level has risen significantly. And we are taking this into account: we are going from eight to nine stages this year. That's a strong message to women's cycling. Our race is still very young, it's only the fourth edition. But you can already see the development, the Tour is getting harder. In previous years, we always started with flat and hilly stages, we usually put the real mountains in the final weekend because we feared that the time gaps would be very big early on in the race due to the performance gap, too big to fight for victory. But we have now realised that the overall level has become higher and also more homogeneous. We can afford to present the riders with real difficulties earlier in the race. The first stages in Brittany will therefore be something for riders with punch. Then there will be two stages for the sprinters and from stage 5 from Chasseneuil-du-Poitou Futuroscope to Guéret we will see stage finals for really strong riders. Stage 6 from Clermont-Ferrand to Ambert is practically already a mountain stage and after that it gets even harder. In short: the Tour will be more demanding this year than in previous years.
TOUR: Is it an advantage for the dramaturgy of the Tour de France Femmes that the race doesn't finish on the Champs-Elysées like the men's race?
Marion Rousse: I think so. But it's difficult to compare, because the men's Tour lasts three weeks. In a three-week tour, you can alternate much more between sprint stages, time trials and mountain stages. For mountain stages you have to ride into the mountains and in nine stages you only reach one or two different mountains at most. Our race has more of a structure like Paris-Nice or the Critérium du Dauphiné, where the mountains are also placed in the last days of the race because you want to finish with a highlight. This dramaturgy suits our race very well. If the race always has to arrive in Paris, that rules out certain things for the course of the tour. You would have to go into the mountains very quickly and that wouldn't be possible with nine days of racing.
TOUR: But would that be a prospect: extending the tour and then ending on the Champs-Elysées in Paris?
Marion Rousse: Well, we are already showing with the nine stages that we are getting bigger, that we are making progress. I won't rule anything out. But we have to remain cautious. Even though women's cycling has developed strongly and quickly in recent years, it still remains a very fragile ecosystem. If we grow too fast, we lose control. This must not happen to us and we have learnt this from the previous versions of this race. We must remain cautious, but we can also continue to dream.
TOUR: Why is women's cycling a fragile ecosystem?
Marion Rousse: Because we simply haven't reached the level of men's cycling yet. We now have a minimum wage, which is great. But the teams are much smaller, there are ten or eleven female riders per team compared to around 30 for the men, and it's similar with the number of support staff. I see the Tour de France Femmes as the top of a pyramid and it needs a stable base. If we become longer, other races could lose race days. That wouldn't be good, we don't want to kill other races. The top of the pyramid should shine brightly and attract sponsors and media for the whole pyramid. We want to create visibility.
TOUR: Back to the race: This year it's from the hills of Brittany over the Massif Central to the Alps with a mountain finish at the Col de la Madeleine on the penultimate day. Will the Tour be decided there this summer and therefore earlier?
Marion Rousse: The Madeleine stage on Saturday is the queen stage, it is long and hard. And of course the overall classification will be decided on this stage. There will be gaps here, yes. But we've thought of something special for the final stage on Sunday: We have placed the Col de Joux Plane in the middle of the stage before the finish in Châtel. We said to ourselves: Ok, if one rider dominates everything on the Col de la Madeleine on Saturday, we don't necessarily want the same scenario again the next day, we want two stages that are very different from each other. Instead, we have designed a stage that invites very early attacks, especially by those who need to make up time on the leader. This could result in a similar scenario to last year's stage up to Alpe d'Huez.
TOUR: With Olympic mountain bike champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, there is a new contender for the overall classification. Can she fulfil her dream of a French Tour victory this year?
Marion Rousse: (Laughs) I laugh because me and Christian Prudhomme (director of the men's Tour, editor's note) like to tease each other about it. Of course, the whole of France has been waiting so long for a successor to Bernard Hinault and every year we have this topic on the table again. In recent years, it's always been: maybe this year? And then there wasn't even a Frenchman on the podium (sighs). And because that doesn't work with the men, Christian and I are now convinced that Bernard Hinault's successor will be a woman. And of course the first person who comes to mind is Pauline. I'm delighted that she's back on the road. She is a real personality. What she achieved last year at the Olympic Games in Paris (she won the gold medal in mountain bike cross country, editor's note) was enormous. Her appeal goes far beyond sport. She is recognised everywhere in France, is a role model for young girls and motivates them to get on their bikes. For this reason alone, I am delighted that she is back from her road cycling retirement. She hasn't ridden a road race for ten years and now she's back because she says: I want to win the women's Tour de France. I also see it as praise for our work when a champion like Pauline returns to the road for our race. And by the way: her victory at Paris-Roubaix (in April 2025, editor's note) and her performances in other races show that she is a force to be reckoned with. Of course, she has to get used to riding in a tight peloton again, which is different in mountain biking. But she is working on it, even racing her colleagues in sprints. Above all, however, she has this unique ability to go very far into the red zone. When she has a goal, she does everything she can to achieve it. If she says herself that she wants to win the women's Tour de France within three years, then I believe that she will achieve it.
TOUR: You've already mentioned the boom in women's cycling: More races and more teams, new sponsors, more competition at the top, and many races are being broadcast on TV. Can this trend continue?
Marion Rousse: There is actually no reason to doubt this. What makes me really optimistic: Every race that I watch, commentate on or organise is exciting. The standard has risen and some of the performances are fantastic. At the Flèche Wallonne, for example, Puck Pieterse's performance on the wall in Huy would have put her 15th in the men's race. Numbers like these speak for themselves. Women's cycling is getting faster and that impresses many. For example, Thomas Voeckler (ex-professional and men's national coach, editor's note), who accompanied the Paris-Roubaix women's race on his bike, came to me afterwards and said: "I'm really impressed". The riders are also very approachable and accessible to the public. People appreciate that, they like coming to our races. And the best riders are now recognised everywhere. That's why I'm super optimistic about the future.
TOUR: You were a professional yourself until 2015. How has women's cycling changed since then?
Marion Rousse: Everything is different from back then. Back then, we changed behind the lorry and didn't have a bus for it. We didn't sleep in hotels, but in schools, barracks or sometimes in a fire station. And that wasn't the organisers' fault, they did what they could. They were generally volunteers and earned nothing from the races. The media weren't interested in us, there were no TV broadcasts and you couldn't even find our results on the internet. My parents were always cheering me on, but they only found out how I'd done in the evening when I was able to call them. And of course I also had to go to work, because I didn't earn anything from cycling. So we've come a very, very long way, and the fact that I lived through this era of cycling meant that I knew exactly what needed to be improved. I had a vision that the true value of women's cycling would be recognised. This required a smart approach. If we had wanted too much at the beginning, we would have hit the wall. Now we are growing steadily and that is exactly right. And now women's cycling is light years away from the sport I once did.
TOUR: Some people say that you need money to grow. Does women's cycling need to find new sources of money?
Marion Rousse: I think we have to be careful. Cycling should remain an approachable and popular sport in the best sense of the word. It's a sport for everyone, and I'm proud of that. If you come from a working-class family, which is the case for me, the Tour de France is an experience that is one thing above all else: free. That's why my family and I were there. And if, for example, we were to start charging visitors to the cycling races, that would change a lot. We are in a difficult economic time for people. And you have to look the truth in the face: Many people don't know if they will have enough left in the fridge at the end of the month to feed everyone. Do we really want to ask these people for money? (Her voice falters) I find it difficult to talk about it. No, no, you can't do that.
TOUR: The minimum wage for female professional cyclists in the World Tour is 38,000 euros, for new pros just under 32,000 euros. Is that enough to live on?
Marion Rousse: I find it difficult to say anything here. Because when you start from scratch, a minimum wage is very important. But on the other hand, it's not yet at the same level as for men. But I can see a development. In the winter, Demi Vollering's move (from SD Worx to FDJ-Suez, editor's note) was the big topic in cycling, almost bigger than Julian Alaphilippe's move (her partner; two-time world champion and multiple stage winner of the Tour de France, editor's note). The riders are more in the limelight and that also leads to higher salaries, as with this transfer (Vollering's salary is said to be in the high six-figure range, another team even offered her an annual salary of one million euros, editor's note). You say to yourself, wow, something has happened. We've gone from zero to such sums - and champions like her have earned it. On the other hand, this also leads to big salary differences for both men and women. We are still at the very beginning of the development of women's cycling and I hope that more sponsors will invest in women's cycling and that, as a result, salaries will also rise, as they do for the men.
TOUR: But it's also in your hands. The pay gap between women and men in cycling is also reflected in the prize money: At the Tour, the winner still receives 500,000 euros and the female winner 50,000 euros. Will you be able to change this?
Marion Rousse: It is difficult to compare a race with 21 race days and one with nine days. We have to compare what is comparable. If you compare the Tour de France Femmes with men's races of a similar length, things look different: Compared to Paris-Nice or the Critérium du Dauphiné, the premium is higher in the women's Tour. The question of the prize money has been with me since the first edition of the Tour and, to be honest, it annoys me a little. Because the bonuses are not that important. The riders don't live off the bonuses, what they want is a fair salary, that's important. The bonuses are distributed within the team anyway, because this is a team sport. And that's why I have a clear stance here: we need good salaries for the pros and we can achieve this thanks to an attractive Tour de France Femmes.
TOUR: One of the declared aims of you and the Tour de France Femmes is to get more girls and women interested in cycling and cycling as a sport. Are you already seeing an effect here?
Marion Rousse: Yes, very specifically: for example, with the creation of the Étape du Tour for women. There has been an Étape du Tour connected to the men's race for a very long time, an amateur race on the queen stage of the Tour. In the classic Étape du Tour, we have maybe three or four per cent female participants. Now, for the Étape du Tour as part of the women's Tour, we expect almost 40 per cent of the participants to be women. So you can see that something is moving and I also notice the effect when I go for a spin on my bike: I see more and more women on their racing bikes, I see couples riding together. That's great, especially because I can see that women are setting themselves fewer barriers. They want to ride road bikes, they ride road bikes and that's a good thing.
