Upholding its commitment to diversifying its sponsorship portfolio of French sports, Française des Jeux (FDJ) has become an official partner of the Tour de France Women’s edition.
Beginning in 2022, France’s National Lottery operator will work with race organiser Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) to promote the ‘Tour de France Femmes’, to be on par with its male cycling counterpart.
Formerly, for the past six years, FDJ had served as the lead sponsor of the Tour de France’s women’s race, titled ‘La Course avec FDJ’.
From 2022 onwards, Tour de France organisers will significantly expand its women’s competition to create the most demanding road cycling event in female pro-cycling.
FDJ CEO, Stéphane Pallez, commented: “We have been campaigning for many years for the creation of this event. It was therefore natural that we should be a major partner. We have always wanted to contribute to the development of French races to offer greater visibility to the discipline and promote the practice of all.
“We were among the first sponsors of ‘La Course by le Tour’ and FDJ will be a partner of the first Paris-Roubaix Femmes. Similarly, I am delighted that our women’s cycling team is now professional and that it can play a leading role in all these events.”
FDJ’s sponsorship of the Tour, will stand alongside its renewed sponsorship of French all-female cycling team – Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope.
Featuring cycling starlets Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and Evita Muzic, Futuroscope aims to become the first champion of the expanded Tour de Femmes.
Stéphen Delcourt, General Manager of the FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope team, added: “Women’s cycling has evolved a lot in recent years; he deserved a world event that lived up to his performances. The Tour de France is an unparalleled global event, which will increase the visibility of our sport.“The champions will inspire little girls in the four corners of the world and give birth to vocations, but also make the general public vibrate. The team works with great enthusiasm to be ready on D-Day and dreams of a Yellow Jersey. We can’t wait to be there!”