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ADELAIDE, Australia: Women will receive the same prize money as men from this year鈥檚 Tour Down Under, the South Australian government said Sunday in what it believes is a world first for a stage race.
The Women鈥檚 Tour Down Under is held the week before the men鈥檚 event and this year was elevated to a UCI 2.1 classification, one level below Women鈥檚 World Tour status.
The men鈥檚 TDU, in its final stage Sunday, is the opening race on the men鈥檚 UCI World Tour calendar and is a state government-owned event.
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to be backpaying the... winners of last week鈥檚 Santos Tour Down Under so that they receive the same paychecks as the men will for the race that concludes today,鈥� South Australia state鈥檚 Tourism Minister Leon Bignell told reporters.
鈥淲e鈥檒l be the first stage race in the world to offer parity between men鈥檚 races and women鈥檚 races.鈥�
Bignell said the prize pool across all classifications for the women鈥檚 race would be more than Aus$100,000 ($79,900), compared with the initial pool of Aus$15,000.
鈥淭he broken bones don鈥檛 hurt any less because you are a woman. You have to do just as much work as the men to become a top rider, so we think it鈥檚 high time in 2018 that women get paid the same as the men do,鈥� he added.
Bignell said he spoke to UCI chief David Lappartient earlier Sunday, who welcomed the move.
鈥淗e鈥檚 hopeful that other races around the world will follow suit,鈥� Bignell said.
Australian Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton-SCOTT) was the overall winner of this year鈥檚 women TDU last week.
鈥淲ow, not that I needed any more reasons to love Tour Down Under. What a huge step forward for equality,鈥� Spratt tweeted after hearing the equal pay news.