The campaign to have a women's Tour de France staged alongside the men's event has borne fruit with the inception this year of a one-day event on the Champs-Elyseés to accompany the final stage of the Tour. It will be the first time since 1989 that women cyclists have raced alongside their male counterparts at cycling's most prestigious finish.

The race will be entitled La Course and while the route and distance have yet to be announced – this is expected in April or May – it marks a significant move for women's cycling given that the Paris finish will provide a much needed showcase for sponsors.

"Back in the autumn a delegation of champion women cyclists came to see us and requested that we create something that would give their sport a real push forward, and that is what will happen on 27 July," the Tour de France organiser Christian Prudhomme told the Observer. "The backdrop will be exceptional because this is the most beautiful circuit in the world and as in 2013 the circuit will include the Arc de Triomphe."

"The race will be transmitted live on France Television and Eurosport and I would imagine that most of the other Tour rights holders will be interested by it," he added. "Cycling is a universal sport but competitive cycling isn't universal, so we need to develop women's events. We've been involved for a long time so it's logical for us to develop this race with the elite of women's cycling."

Yann le Moenner, the managing director of the Tour's parent company Amaury Sports Organisation, said that "making a contribution to all forms of cycling is a vocation for the Tour de France. This is even more so when it is about supporting a discipline that is clearly on the up and has been making its mark in professional sport for many years." La Course joins the Ladies Tour of Qatar and La Flèche Wallonne on ASO's roster of women's events.

"A giant step forward for women's cycling and one that athletes, teams and the public will undoubtedly support," said the triathlete Chrissie Wellington, one of the founders of the Le Tour Entier pressure group which has been behind the campaign for parity launched in July. "A revolutionary development in our sport," said the women's world No1 Marianne Vos. "I have no doubt that La Course by Le Tour identifies a new era for women's cycling and will significantly contribute to the growth of road racing."

Contacts between ASO and Le Tour Entier began in August not long after a petition was launched by the British former world time-trial champion Emma Pooley, Wellington and the veteran pro cyclist and writer Kathryn Bertine to coincide with the 100th running of the men's Tour. The petition drew more than 80,000 signatures within a few months.

Reactions at the time were mixed, with the move drawing support from the Labour politician Harriet Harman, while the future president of the UCI Brian Cookson – at that point he was the president of British Cycling – was also supportive and indeed assisted with making initial contact between Le Tour Entier and ASO.

Cookson went on to make an expansion of women's cycling a key plank in his election manifesto, with the foundation of a UCI women's racing commission. He described Saturday's development as "a tremendous step forward."

The move has been enabled by one of 2013's innovations, which was to run the final stage of the Tour much later in the day than in the past. This was probably not the intention at the time – it was seen as a one-off to coincide the Tour's anniversary – but it has left a large time window available to the organisers on that final Sunday afternoon. In addition, the use of the finishing circuit on the Champs-Elyseés is a straightforward use of roads which are already closed much earlier in the day.