Allow women to ride in the Tour de France?

Le Tour de France

Calling road cycling "one of the worst offenders" in gender inequity, four elite female athletes have created a petition to ask the sport's hallmark event, the Tour de France, to include women next year. Citing the inclusion of women at the world's top marathons, the petition's authors say, "After a century, it is about time women are allowed to race the Tour de France, too." 

The Change.org petition was begun by Kathryn Bertine, an American cyclist and journalist, along with some of the biggest names in cycling: Olympic and world champion Marianne Vos of the Netherlands and world champion Emma Pooley of Britain, as well as British triathlete Chrissie Wellington, a four-time World Ironman Champion.

What do you think--women allowed in the Tour de France?  FYI the proposal is not for woman to race alongside men in the same race, but rather to organize a separate women's event on the same course on the same day.

The difficulty is that current UCI regulations for women's races require much shorter distances--meaning that the women's race cannot ride the same routes, the same mountain stages, the same distances as the men's race.

What do you think?