By John Considine
Tomorrow's winner of the women's Paris-Roubaix road-cycling race will get €20,000. That is a staggering increase from the €1,535 that last year's winner took home. The overall prize money has increased to €50,000 from €7,000 in 2021. While this remains just over 50% of the prize money for the men's race, the progress in one year is substantial.
Last year's winner will not be at the start line and, therefore, will not be taking home either the larger cheque or another cobble-stone trophy. In this respect, the women's race is similar to the men's race that takes place on Sunday. However, there is a vast difference in the history of the events. The 2021 women's race was the first edition of a race. The men's race started in 1896. It is one of what are known as the five monuments. These are monumental one-day races in many ways. For example, the winner in each of the five men's races in 2021 took over six hours to complete the race. One race stretched to 6 hours and over 39 minutes.
The long history of the event allows us to look at the historical outcomes of the race. One such outcome of interest is the long-run distribution of winners. Below is the cumulative distribution of winners since 1946 for Paris-Roubaix. Another monument is included for comparison purposes, i.e. Tour of Flanders. Both have 76 winners but in the case of Paris-Roubaix it includes two winners after a controversy in 1949 and no winner in 2020 when the race was not run for pandemic related reasons. Of the 76 winners, Paris-Roubaix has 54 different individuals winning at least one race whereas the Tour of Flanders has 59.
Last year's winner will not be at the start line and, therefore, will not be taking home either the larger cheque or another cobble-stone trophy. In this respect, the women's race is similar to the men's race that takes place on Sunday. However, there is a vast difference in the history of the events. The 2021 women's race was the first edition of a race. The men's race started in 1896. It is one of what are known as the five monuments. These are monumental one-day races in many ways. For example, the winner in each of the five men's races in 2021 took over six hours to complete the race. One race stretched to 6 hours and over 39 minutes.
The long history of the event allows us to look at the historical outcomes of the race. One such outcome of interest is the long-run distribution of winners. Below is the cumulative distribution of winners since 1946 for Paris-Roubaix. Another monument is included for comparison purposes, i.e. Tour of Flanders. Both have 76 winners but in the case of Paris-Roubaix it includes two winners after a controversy in 1949 and no winner in 2020 when the race was not run for pandemic related reasons. Of the 76 winners, Paris-Roubaix has 54 different individuals winning at least one race whereas the Tour of Flanders has 59.
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