Cat Ferguson leads British hopes as UK start to 2027 Tour de France Femmes set to be toughest in history

Former junior world champion Cat Ferguson is aiming to make her Tour debut next year (AFP/Getty)

Fellow Brit, Fenix-Premier Tech rider Flora Perkins, added: “I think with things like the Olympics or the men's Tour starting here, we've always seen that there's been a peak in cycling interest after that, and that's what we hope for this time round, that people who haven't come in contact with cycling before see this bike race and see especially women at the top end of the sport competing and think, ‘This is great, I love this, I want to do this more often’ or ‘I want to watch these women more often’.”

Race director Marion Rousse described the British Grand Depart as a “hugely historic moment” for the Tour de France Femmes and a “huge step forward for women's cycling”. She said: “The three stages will be harder than they seem. [For] the young riders coming through, it’s wonderful that they’ll have the opportunity to be part of a race which is what women’s cycling deserves.

“I remember watching what was going on in Yorkshire [in 2014] and seeing just how many people lined the streets to watch the race, it was a standout event in the history of the race and we’re really hoping to see similar support.”

Stage one, on Friday 30 July 2027, will begin in Headrow in the centre of Leeds, mimicking the path of the men’s peloton in the 2014 Grand Depart. The 86km route, which crosses the Pennines and passes through Huddersfield and the Peak District National Park en route to a city centre finish in Deansgate, Manchester, will be “short, dynamic and tough,” according to Rousse.

Stage two will retrace the men’s route from 12 years ago, when Vincenzo Nibali won in Sheffield (Local Library)

Stage two will similarly echo Tour de France history in the UK, with the finish in Sheffield re-using elements of the parcours from the 2014 Tour, when Vincenzo Nibali won and took yellow on stage two en route to his one and only overall victory.

Rousse described stage two as “probably the hardest stage that we’ve had in a Grand Depart”. “There’s not one single flat kilometre,” she said. “The magic of the Tour is really going to come to life. This is going to be a Classic race and we can compare it to Liege-Bastogne-Liege next Sunday.”

The stage will incorporate 3,000m of climbing across 154.4km and tackle some of the north-west’s biggest climbs, including the Winnats Pass (1.4km at 12.3%) and Snake Pass (5.4km at 4.6%). Two short, punishing ascents in Sheffield which the men’s race summited in 2014, the Côte d’Oughtibridge (1.5km at 9.1%) and the Côte de Jenkin Road (0.8km at 10.8%), will prove crucial.

Huge crowds gathered for the Yorkshire Grand Depart in 2014 and organisers ASO hope 10 million people will welcome the Tour de France Femmes next year (PA Wire)

Ferguson has previously trained in the area alongside close friend and Visma-Lease a Bike rider Imogen Wolff, who is from south Yorkshire, and summed up the opening two stages as “super brutal”.

Stage three will start and finish in the capital, with the teams racing over a central London circuit for around 18km, passing by the Houses of Parliament, London Eye and Tower Bridge en route to a finish on The Mall – the start and finish location for the London 2012 Olympic Games road race, won by Britain’s Lizzie Deignan (then Armitstead).

Rousse said: “The Tour is seen from the sky with a [TV] helicopter but the city streets are our stadium, so we’ll make the most of the environment to showcase the best of London.”