The UCI recently announced the number of athletes that the National Olympic Committees will enter in the road events at the Tokyo Olympics. This alarming but historic lack of equality has led many to question the UCI's commitment to equality in professional cycling. In response, the UCI told Cycling News that it aims to achieve full equality in the number of men and women slots in road cycling by the 2024 Paris Olympics.

"Currently, gender equality has been achieved with regard to the number of Olympic disciplines (11 each for men and women in five cycling disciplines). With regard to the number of athletes participating, equality is guaranteed in three of the five disciplines: mountain biking (38), BMX racing (24), and BMX freestyle (9), and is almost achieved in track (91 versus 98, basically due to the team sprint team structure)," a UCI spokesperson told Cycling News.

"As for road cycling, the quota allocated to female riders increased from 45 in 1984 to 67 in 2004 and will be maintained until 2020, while the maximum quota for men has decreased from 184 in 1996 to 130 now.

"The International Cycling Union is committed to pursuing the goal of full equality between men and women in terms of participation in the Olympic Games, and in line with the UCI's Agenda 2022, we mean to realize this ambition at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

"We are continuing discussions with the International Olympic Committee on ways to achieve this goal.

There has been a general evolution toward equality in cycling, as slow as it may sometimes seem. Last June, UCI President David Lapartient, with the approval of the UCI Governing Board, announced his commitment to gender equality through Agenda 2022. This Agenda included several structural initiatives regarding the future role of governing bodies in gender equality within the sport.

As one of its commitments, the UCI is currently implementing a strict code of conduct, signed by all UCI women's team employees, aimed at raising awareness of harassment; the UCI has also committed to developing and implementing a charter to promote gender equality in cycling. The charter begins with a gender equality policy and basic principles aimed at implementing equal pay within the organization.

Other topics outlined in the agenda include guaranteeing gender equality in award ceremonies and providing equal prize money in cyclocross world cups.

At the time, Lapartiento said of the Agenda, "It contains important initiatives to guarantee equality between men and women, whether they are riders, federation employees, or other women involved in our sport. It is essential that we all work together for this cause, and this is one of the biggest priorities in my actions."

The UCI is also urging new developments toward equality in women's professional cycling. As part of the newly implemented reforms, a minimum annual salary of €15,000 (employed) or €24,600 (self-employed) will be introduced, along with additional insurance such as maternity leave for athletes signed with top-class women's world teams starting in 2020. By 2023, the minimum annual salary for women will be pro Continental men's team's minimum annual salary to be equal to that of the men's team.

The UCI has also decided to provide 45 minutes of live television coverage for all Women's World Tour events in order to raise the sport's profile to the highest level. The UCI has also increased its commitment to athlete safety by significantly updating the UCI Code of Ethics to protect athletes from harassment.

However, at a time when women's professional cycling has seen steady growth in professionalism and participation, and equality within the sport is coming to the fore, the gap in the number of athletes participating in the men's and women's road events at the Tokyo Olympics is a major red flag.

When American Connie Carpenter won gold in the first women's road race at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, she competed in a field of 45 women, while her compatriot Alexi Grewal won gold in a field of 135 men.2004 At the Athens Olympics in 2004, 200 men and 67 women competed in the road events, marking the largest participation quota for the road events.

At next summer's Tokyo Games, 130 men will compete in the 234-km race from Musashino Forest Park to Fuji Speedway. The course includes four climbs: Donushi Kaido, Kagosaka Pass, and the outer rim of Mt. Fuji, for a total climbing distance of 4,865 meters.

Meanwhile, the women's field remained unchanged from 2004 with 67 competitors. The women's race, on the other hand, will consist of 67 runners, the same as in 2004, covering 137 km from Musashino Forest Park to Fuji Speedway. Although the women's race will not cross the iconic Mt. Fuji, the course will include the Donushi Kaido Road and Kagosaka Pass, with a total climbing distance of 2,692 meters.

When the route was released, there were mixed reactions, with some saying that the women's course was merely a watered-down version of the men's course.

Iris Slappendel, executive director of The Cyclists' Alliance [TCA], told Cycling News that equal road slots for men and women at the Olympics is one of their main goals ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.

Cycling News understands that equal entry slots was also a main goal for Marianne Vos as the UCI Athletes' Commission women's road representative. The athlete representative has a seat on the UCI Road Commission, where Vos expressed her concerns about equal quotas at the Olympics.

He said that the equal quota for road events was not achieved before the Tokyo Olympics, but that the UCI remains committed to achieving an equal quota by the 2024 Paris Olympics.

According to Cycling News, the athlete quotas for each discipline are determined by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board almost four years before the Olympic Games. The quotas for each discipline for the Paris Olympics will be determined in December 2020.

According to Cycling News, prior to the determination of athlete quotas, each International Federation (IF) will submit proposals to the IOC for consideration by the Olympic Program Commission, which will make recommendations to the IOC Executive Board The IOC will then inspect the newly proposed events and evaluate their suitability for the Olympic Games Before submission by the UCI, the Commissions make recommendations [based on the sport's criteria] and an overall proposal is compiled and submitted to the Governing Board.

The UCI told Cycling News that it is continuing discussions with the IOC on how to achieve parity for road events.

However, Cycling News understands that there are several possible ways to achieve the same starting slots for men's and women's road events, provided that the total number of slots for cycling and each discipline remains the same as at the Tokyo Olympics.

One approach would be to redistribute the starting slots equally between men and women. Another approach would be to redistribute the quotas for other cycling events such as track, MTB, and BMX to the road events.

If the UCI intends to achieve full gender parity in participation in the 2024 Paris Olympics, it will need to develop a plan on how to achieve this goal well in advance of the Games.