Items17The creator’s order
  1. 1Beryl BurtonBeryl BurtonBorn 12 May 1937With almost no women's road racing to enter, the Yorkshire rider built her career in British time trials and on the track, winning the Best All-Rounder competition 25 years running and two world road titles. In 1967 her 12-hour ride beat the men's British record, the result most often used to show…0i
  2. 2Marianne MartinMarianne MartinThe American won the first Tour de France Féminin in 1984, run on the same days and roads as the final kilometres of the men's stages. The race lasted only a few years in that form, and Martin's win is the starting point for understanding why the women's Tour took until 2022 to return properly.0i
  3. 3Connie Carpenter-PhinneyConnie Carpenter-PhinneyBorn 26 Feb 1957Carpenter-Phinney won the first women's Olympic road race in Los Angeles in 1984 by a bike throw in the sprint, after earlier competing as a speed skater at the 1972 Winter Olympics. The 1984 race gave women's road cycling its first Olympic platform, and with it national funding in many countries.0i
  4. 4Maria CaninsMaria CaninsBorn 4 Jun 1949The Italian cross-country skier turned to cycling in her thirties and won the Tour de France Féminin in 1985 and 1986, as well as Giro titles. Her climbing in the Alps against Jeannie Longo gave the 1980s women's Tour its defining rivalry, and her late start shows how open the sport still was then.0i
  5. 5Jeannie LongoJeannie LongoBorn 31 Oct 1958Longo won the Tour de France Féminin three times (1987 to 1989), Olympic road gold in 1996 and a long run of world titles on road and track, and was still racing at national level into her fifties. Her career spans the whole gap between the first women's Tour and the modern professional era, which…0i
  6. 6Leontien van MoorselLeontien van MoorselBorn 22 Mar 1970Van Moorsel won the Tour Cycliste Féminin twice in the early 1990s, then returned from an eating disorder to win three Olympic golds in Sydney 2000 (road race, time trial and pursuit) and another in 2004, plus the hour record in 2003. Her comeback, and her openness about it, changed how the sport…0i
  7. 7Nicole CookeNicole CookeBorn 13 Apr 1983The Welsh rider won the Giro Donne in 2004, the Grande Boucle twice and, in 2008, both the Olympic road race in Beijing's rain and the world title. She did it in an era of minimal pay and media coverage, and her retirement statement criticising doping and the treatment of women riders made her one…0i
  8. 8Emma PooleyEmma PooleyBorn 3 Oct 1982Pooley won Olympic time-trial silver in 2008 and the 2010 world time-trial title as a small, light climber. With Marianne Vos, Kathryn Bertine and Chrissie Wellington she co-founded the Le Tour Entier campaign in 2013, which pushed the Tour organisers into creating La Course in 2014, the first step…0i
  9. 9Kathryn BertineKathryn BertineBorn 11 May 1975Bertine raced professionally for St Kitts and Nevis and made the documentary Half the Road about inequality in women's cycling. As a co-founder of Le Tour Entier she helped secure La Course in 2014, so her influence on the modern calendar is larger than her race results alone suggest.0i
  10. 10Marianne VosMarianne VosBorn 13 May 1987Vos is the most decorated rider of the modern era across road, cyclo-cross and track: Olympic road gold in 2012, multiple road world titles and stage wins at the revived Tour de France Femmes. She was also a founder of the Le Tour Entier campaign, using her status as the sport's biggest star to…0i