This professional cyclist from Fort Worth made history in France this summer. Here’s how

Fort Worth made sports history this summer when the only Texan racing in the reborn women’s Tour de France was Emily Van Dyken Newsom, a TCU alum, classical pianist, and product of the local Trinity Trails.

Newsom, who commutes around town on a canary yellow Cannondale bicycle, was among six American riders in the 642-mile race. The competition began in Paris on July 24, the same day the men’s Tour de France ended, and concluded eight days later at a summit in the Vosges Mountains.

“Everything about it was incredible,” says Newsom, 39, an Alamo Heights mom who turned pro-cyclist four years ago. “The nonstop cheering of spectators on the ascents ... the rough jarring surface of the road ... the iconic Champs-Elysees ... the history being written. ... It was a huge moment.”

The women’s race was revived after a 33-year lapse. Unlike the men’s Tour de France, which celebrated its 109th running in July, the women’s Tour has been on-again, off-again. The first Tour de France for women was in 1955. It drew few spectators or sponsors. Sportswriters mocked women as too frail to straddle a bicycle and advised them to shop in Paris rather than cycle.

The next Tour de France for women was 29 years later, the year the Olympics introduced women’s cycling at the 1984 Los Angeles games. Called the Tour de France Feminin, it ran simultaneously with the men’s competition, but with shorter distances. The top female rider, an American, stood on the winner’s platform alongside the male champion. Although the women’s Tour de France continued six years, the ladies’ race days dwindled. After 1989, Tour officials halted the women’s Tour, citing high costs and minimal media interest.

Yet elsewhere, women’s sports were taking off. Cyclists lobbied to catch up. This year, the reborn Tour de France Femmes selected 24 international teams, among them Emily Newsom’s team — EF-TIBCO-SVB. The initials stand for three financial sponsors: Education First, an international learning company; TIBCO, a software firm based in Palo Alto; and Silicon Valley Bank. The Tour de France Femmes is on the world cycling calendar through 2025. CNBC and Peacock TV bought broadcasting rights for 2022.

It takes tons of funding to underwrite a pro-cycling team, says Newsom, who draws a salary based on the men’s world-tour minimum-wage scale. She and her teammates are equipped with pink Cannondale bikes, matching pink helmets and apparel. There is a team bus, a week-long training camp in Spain and a physician on call. A soigneur, the French term for a caretaker, customizes the mix of nutrients in each rider’s water bottle and cooks the rice cakes they munch to refuel on the road.

When Newsom races, the earbuds she wears are not playing Beethoven or Brahms. She’s listening to the team manager riding in a vehicle behind the peloton. The manager alerts her to road hazards and breakaway riders and advises when to make a move.

“It’s a chess game,” Newsom said.

Newsom grew up in Burlington and Sunnyside, Washington, where she had a paper route and hopped on a bicycle to deliver the news. Her passion was piano playing, which led her to the University of Idaho’s Lionel Hampton School of Music. There, a teacher advised her to apply to grad school at Texas Christian University under Dr. Tamas Ungar, who a decade ago was named Teacher of the Year by the Music Teachers National Association. On her Instagram feed, which has 4,100 followers, she describes him as “a warm Hungarian ... who opened the world of musical expression for me.”

Ungar still has programs from Newsom’s performances at TCU’s PepsiCo Recital Hall and Robert Carr Chapel. He remembers her as a talented, determined student who selected challenging pieces. “She undertook the impossible and made it possible,” he said.

After completing her master’s in music in 2009, Newsom applied to a more advanced piano program. She was turned down.

“It was pretty dark for me. I didn’t know what to do. All I had was music. I wanted to be a performer,” she recalled. “Now I see God had a plan.”

To clear her head, she began jogging along the Trinity Trail. She met, fell in love with, and in 2014 married James Newsom Jr., who operated the Fort Worth Running Co. Together they trained for triathlons. That led to friendship with former Mayor Betsy Price, who added miles of bike lanes to city streets. At the 2013 Cowtown Marathon, Newsom won the women’s 10K.

Running eventually led to painful stress fractures. Yet at bicycling Newsom set records, excelling on the gravel-racing circuit. The path ahead was becoming clear. Pro-cycling was in her future.

With encouragement from her spouse, Newsom entered races across Texas and beyond. Among her local favorites are the Hotter’N Hell Hundred in Wichita Falls and Gravel Locos 150 in Hico, which she won in 2021. In Italy, at the Giro Rosa, she delighted teammates when she sat down at a piano and turned their lodge into a concert venue.

Newsom sees parallels between arts and athletics. “Coming from music, I was very disciplined and goal oriented. I was accustomed to hours of practice, focus, and pushing myself to the limits.”

To keep her piano skills fine-tuned, until a few years ago she played at Lili’s Bistro on Magnolia. Now that she cycles up to five hours a day and spends hours with her daughter Marijke 7, after school, there’s no time or energy for an evening gig. However, the Baldwin grand piano in her living room always beckons.

Hollace Ava Weiner, a former Star-Telegram reporter, is an author, archivist, and the director of the Fort Worth Jewish Archives.