Fuelled by job bikes, a new environmental awareness and the unbroken enthusiasm for nature-based leisure activities, cycling has been experiencing its heyday again for some years now. It's true that very few people have ambitions to compete at the top level. But the big cycling events exert an undiminished fascination – especially when female riders from the company cycling team take part in a very special race.

Premiere round of the “Tour de France Femmes”

The cycling scene is full of traditional races, but the real queen is the Tour de France. Until now, only men have been able to compete and prove themselves in the most important road cycling race. Although there have been several attempts in the past to bring a Tour exclusively with female riders to the start, it is only with the "Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift" that women's cycling finally gets a counterpart on the same level as the men's Tour. In order to give it the right media setting, the race, which will last about a week, will start on the final day of the men's race on 24 July in Paris.

The CERATIZIT-WNT PRO CYCLING TEAM will enter the race with a squad of six riders from six nations. In order to compete in the different terrains of the 8 stages with a total of 1,029 kilometres, the riders have been selected with a focus on the expected mass sprints and the gruelling, sometimes extreme climbs. Besides Olympic champion Lisa Brennauer, five other riders from a total of six nations will start: Laura Asencio, France, Maria Giulia Confalonieri, Italy, Sandra Alonso, Spain, Kathrin Schweinberger, Austria and Marta Lach, Poland.

Sponsoring with synergy effect

Sponsoring is an important factor in sport, not least for cycling teams. "Having a sponsor behind you who is not only a financial backer but also the owner of the team is not only a unique selling proposition - but also very fortunate for everyone," says Claude Sun, Managing Director of CERATIZIT Deutschland GmbH and pacesetter for the commitment to women's cycling. Because at CERATIZIT they are convinced that no other sport reflects the company values better than cycling. And since most bike components such as cranks or stems are machined in some way, the sport also has a direct link to the products that are developed, manufactured and sold there every day: high-quality precision tools for the machining industry.

So what could be more natural than forming your own women's cycling team with the best athletes? This happened back in 2014 with the first amateur team in Great Britain and has since grown into the CERATIZIT-WNT Pro Cycling Team: a total of 16 international female athletes act as brand ambassadors and bring the company's philosophy to the public. On top of that, the team benefits from direct contact to the bike and component manufacturers. This ensures that they are very closely involved in the design process, and that the bikes are made exactly the way they best suit the respective rider.

#ridetoparis – who is behind it

In the past few weeks, the hashtag #ridetoparis has increasingly been used in social media. It is backed by 200 cycling enthusiastic CERATIZIT employees from all over Europe. They want to support "their" women's cycling team in the media in the best possible way - and more: they are also going to Paris on the weekend of the start of the Tour de France Femmes to support their riders live and loud. To catch some "Tour vibes" while at it, a 70-kilometre bike tour is on the agenda, which will be crowned with a lap on the Champs-Elysées - and of course a meeting with the riders of the CERATIZIT-WNT Pro Cycling Team.