The women’s Tour de France begins on Sunday behind the Eiffel Tower in Paris. In the minds of those who participate in the race, athletes also charge through Minnesota.
Circuit Sport, a sports management company with a long history of teaching professional cyclists based in Edina, has a team of six women in this area. The Human Powered Health team is one of the 24 teams on the tour and is weighted with importance on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
Sunday’s stage race brought a new air of legitimacy to women whose tour history has been mixed for nearly half a century, and men insisted on the headline. Attempts on par with women began in 1955. Almost 30 years later, an event for women was held in parallel with the men’s tour from 1984. The Tour de France Society, then the organizer of the men’s race, has released a short version. For a woman called the Tour de France Feminine (Women). It lasted until 1989.
The event occurred until 2009, with different organizers and inconsistent race lengths due to lack of interest, sponsorship and funding. Since then, women’s opportunities have been reduced to once-daily races. Finally, under pressure, the male tour organizer Amorisports Organization launched a lap race called Lacours in 2014, laying the foundation for the return of a complete female Tour de France.
For Charles Aaron, who owns and manages circuit sports, women’s mountaineering is a milestone. Aaron formed the first professional cycling team based in Minnesota 15 years ago.
His first team, KBS / Medifast, was a men’s team, filled with riders from the United States and Canada. Its main sponsors were Kelly Benefit Strategy (KBS), an insurance broker in Spark, Maryland, and Medifast, the creator of the diet plan. He started racing his first women’s team in 2012.
The team name has changed to accommodate the changing sponsorship over the years — Optum Pro Cycling precedes Rally Cycling, which became Human Powered Health this year — but the fleeting side is Aaron and his. It goes against the long-term support that helped our staff realize their long-standing dreams.
Aaron from St. Louis Park quotes business mentors and friends as saying, “There are so many connections,” with the support of Minnesota companies such as UnitedHealth Group.
Currently he has both male and female teams racing in North America and Europe. By June, women have achieved one win, seven podiums and 26 top 15 finishes, with more than two months left for the women’s world tour season with the top 15 teams.
Aaron’s team is close to home and has been regularly successful in recent years at the Nature Valley Grand Prix. Until 2017, this Grand Prix was a summer fixture around the metro area with lap races, road races and time trials. This was the main event of the Great River Energy Bicycle Festival, founded by David LaPorte, and a major event on the USA Cycling Calendar. Some of the best American cyclists were regulars. It was a kind of showcase for the late Arden Hills cyclist Kelly Catlin, who rode Arden and found the glory of the Olympics. She was a member of Foursome, who won a silver medal in Team Pursuit in the Rio Game in 2016.
It has grown in scale with success. Aaron has nearly 90 employees dedicated to the Human Powered Health team and its busy schedule. Currently, the logistics base is in Girona, Spain.
“I have this [women’s tour] Returning to be part of it is an incredible historic milestone for everyone involved here. [at Circuit Sport]”I’m really excited,” said Aaron, who left for Paris on Wednesday.
A breakthrough for his team has come this year. Circuit Sport has applied for Union Cycliste Internationale, the world governing body for cycling, and has participated in a women’s world tour. The Tour de France, or the Tour de France Fems (female), is part of it.
According to Aaron, the Women’s World Tour is more organized and powerful than in recent years, and is like a synergistic effect with the activation of the Women’s Tour.
“It’s about time,” Aaron said. “This change is definitely good for everyone.”
Does the female Tour de France resonate in the Minnesota road racer cycling community?
“Of course,” said Jenny Beckman, 33, an employee of Gear West at Long Lake, which organized Pretty Fast, a racing team at the popular ski and bike shop. “It’s certainly a group text topic.”
Beckman noticed a women’s event while using Zwift, an online platform popular with cyclists. Zwift is the title sponsor of the tour.
Beckman said the news should not be seen as male-to-female. Cyclists want to see other riders at the top of the game, no matter who is in the saddle.
“It’s very important to move further towards inclusiveness and expression,” she added. “What do you think you’ll grow everywhere … if you don’t show what your highest level of success looks like on both sides?” [men and women]?? Why do they get into it? You need those ambitious stories. “
The women’s Tour de France will play on eight stages for eight days and 642 miles. (Men have 21 stages.) The longest day is stage 5, 109 miles, setting a tough mountain stage.
Aaron’s women’s team (one of three in the United States) has had Olympic caliber cyclists for years, and it continues in France. In fact, the team’s only American rider, Lily Williams, won the bronze medal in the team pursuit at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
The Men’s Tour de France concludes Sunday in sync with the women’s launch. Aaron’s goal is to one day see his burnt orange Human Powered Health Kit in the men’s arena as well.
For now, he sinks this milestone.
“Today will be a very moving day for me. We are not only representing Minnesota, but introducing the United States.
“Pursuit your dreams — that’s the message here,” he said.
