Quoted by Cycling News, who were in turn alluding to an interview conducted for the Le Tour Prologue programme in Australia, Cookson (pictured top) said he thought the idea "unrealistic".

"I would like to see a women's Tour de France, but I think it needs to be over modified distances, modified number of days, and so on," he went on.

And asked by the BBC's Radio 5 Live if it was time for a permanent Tour de France for women, Cookson said: "I think the idea is a great one.

"I think women do deserve to have more serious competitions and more high profile events.

"I think there are some serious logistical problems and organisational problems with adding a women's event to the Tour de France.

"That was what was tried about 20 years or so ago.

"It became very, very difficult."


The petition – arguing that "after a century, it is about time women are allowed to race the Tour de France too" – was launched this month by a group of women cyclists, including Olympic champion Marianne Vos and Britain's Emma Pooley.

The document emphasised that those behind it were not seeking to race against the men, "but to have our own professional field running in conjunction with the men's event, at the same time, over the same distances, on the same days".

In the late 1960s, it went on, "people assumed that women couldn't run the Marathon; 30 years on we can look back and see how erroneous this was.

"Hopefully 30 years from now, we will see 2014 as the year that opened people's eyes to true equality in the sport of cycling."

At time of writing, the petition had garnered well over 46,000 supporters.

Meanwhile, Cookson chose to focus on the sport's credibility problem and the booing of Tour de France leader, Chris Froome, in his latest campaign blog.


"I don't think the people were booing Chris himself," he said.

"To me it's obvious that they were booing because they suspected they were being fooled again.

"And it is clear why they feel like that – because the system has failed them so badly in the past and many believe it has been corrupt."

He went on: "The widespread scepticism is the best illustration possible that the failures of the last 20 years have undermined people's faith that the UCI can be trusted on anti-doping...

"We desperately need cycling's anti-doping procedures to be trusted.

"We also need the UCI to be trusted.

"We also need a UCI which has an excellent working relationship with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and national anti-doping organisations...

"That is why, if I am elected UCI President, my first priority will be to work in consultation with WADA to establish a completely independent anti-doping unit and I will also immediately set up an independent investigation into the allegations that the UCI was corrupt, covered up tests or tipped off riders...

"We have a beautiful sport and the fans want to believe.

"It's our job to give them something they can genuinely believe in.

"Unless that is urgently addressed, we will continue to see whoever happens to be in the yellow jersey bear the burden of all those years when the UCI all but abandoned the most fundamental responsibility of any sport's governing body – to ensure a fair contest."

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