B.C. Superweek will offer equal prize money to the men’s and women’s podium finishers at all nine of the cycling races, making the summer series one of the most lucrative on the continent.
The overall prize money will increase an additional $10,000 over last year to $120,000 in 2014.
B.C. Superweek ambassador and dual defending champion in the MK Delta Criterium and Tour de White Rock Lex Albrecht said the equal pay is an important step toward more gender equality in cycling, a sport that doesn’t include women in its marquee elite events such as the Tour de France.
“Inequality between men’s and women’s cycling is a hot-button issue these days. In most cases, the gap between prize money offered to men and women is exceptionally and unjustly significant,” Albrecht said in a news release.
In 2013, Leah Kirchmann won the Gastown and UBC Grand Prix. While the men’s winner took home $15,000 at the Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix, Kirchmann pocketed $8,000.
The women’s purse was already the largest for a women’s criterium in North America and this year it will be even larger and on par with the men’s, which will drop $2,000 for the champion’s prize.
The men and women on the podium for the Gastown Grand Prix will earn $13,000 for first, $6,000 for second and $3,000 for third.
The equal prize money is one way to encourage more women to race and grow the number of competitors, which is considerably smaller than the men’s field.
“Equality in the sport is very important for us to foster,” said B.C. Superweek race director Mark Ernsting. “We couldn’t ignore the increase in women’s participation and quality of performance over the last two seasons.”
On top of the $120,000 in prize money, each of the nine races opens cyclists up to thousands of dollars more in primes, which are partly generated from the crowd.
Online registration is open now and discounts continue until June 6. Discounts are also available to riders entered in all stages. Teams that sign up six riders for the entire B.C. Superweek series can register an additional three riders for free.
B.C. Superweek is a nine-race series held in seven cities over 10 days from July 4 to 13, 2014. The UBC Grand Prix is July 8 followed by the Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix on July 9.
For more details and to register, visit .
