Here's a story the USA Today picked up on today about a women's tour
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports...hange/2530107/
One of the problems of starting a women's race before the men's on the same day would be the large parade of vehicles that comes through before the race from the sponsors and others. TV doesn't show them much but from what I understand, those are a big part of the race itself and fans line up to get free stuff from them.