Lotte Kopecky has highlighted the importance of live coverage in women’s cycling ahead of the newly-promoted Giro Donne and Tour de France Femmes.
After being demoted to ProSeries status in 2021 due to a lack of live broadcast, the race provided live coverage of all stages last year, and was granted WorldTour status again for 2022.
The race will also have an increased prize pot this year, but Lotte Kopecky - who will line-up at the Giro start in Sardinia next week - points to the TV coverage as the race’s key improvement.
"We’ve said a lot of times before that the live coverage is actually the most important thing, but of course also the prize money is nice," Kopecky said. "I think every improvement we get at this moment is very good and positive for women’s cycling."
45 minutes of live coverage per day is part of the UCI’s criteria for being a WorldTour race, something which Kopecky also praised.
"They have the WorldTour status, so they are obligated to do this live coverage," she added. "These are the rules and they have to follow them, no matter what kind of organisation they are. If the Tour de France would be here and there would be no live coverage, I think that there would also be a lot of discussion about it. I think it’s only good that there is this live coverage."
The looming Tour de France Femmes has almost certainly played a part in the changes made to the Giro Donne, not only in the coverage but the organisers have also increased the prize fund to €250,000, matching that of the Tour.
"Of course with the Tour de France coming, the Giro wants to have really good participants, so I think they did everything to also get the attention that they need," Kopecky said.
The Giro Donne is not the only race to have faced consequences for not providing sufficient live coverage. The RideLondon Classique, where only the third stage was broadcast live last month, have been provisionally demoted to ProSeries status for 2023, with their re-entry to the WorldTour dependent on proving their intention to show each stage live.
Kopecky, who finished fourth overall at the race, welcomed the UCI’s decision to enforce their criteria for WorldTour status.
"It was a nice race, and they had the WorldTour status and I know in past years it is financially pretty hard to have this," she said. "But if you cannot do this live coverage, then you should not be WorldTour.
"So I think it’s maybe not good for the organisation, but it’s maybe good that they got this punishment, and show that they are not better than any other race, they have to follow the rules and have to do this live coverage. I hope in the future that they can manage to do this and that they can stay in the WorldTour."
