THE Tour de Yorkshire will be out to raise the bar again this weekend as it works to play a part in boosting the profile of women's cycling.

The race may not be part of the Women's World Tour – introduced in 2016 to revamp the women's calendar – but it already feels like a bigger event than many others that are, and the ambitions of its organisers have helped push the boundaries.

Last year, the race offered what was at the time record prize money for a women's event anywhere in the world. This year, there will be the same £50,000 purse on the line again as well as full television coverage.

A tougher course promises an even better race, and that explains why a world-class field - including Olympic champion Anna van der Breggen and Britain's own former world champion Lizzie Deignan, both of the powerful Boels-Dolman team – will be heading to the start line in Tadcaster on Saturday.

Wiggle-High5's British sprinter Lucy Garner, who finished second in the race in Doncaster last year, said: "It's pretty high on a lot of teams' lists.

"Last year there weren't so many teams here, but this year there are a lot of the top riders and a lot of the top teams want to get a good result here. The profile of the race makes it very important."

While cycling's heartlands might be on the continent, Britain, where interest in the sport is relatively new, has found a niche in the extent to which it promotes women's races.

The Women's Tour is considered by many riders to be among the very best on the calendar, while the Prudential RideLondon is also a WorldTour event.

Yorkshire's role should not be overlooked, however.

"They're so professional in how they advertise our race," said Garner. "It's amazing publicity we get. I was able to do the recon ride with the organisers and they turned that into a promotional video. They could easily have got one of the men's teams to do it but as we're doing the same route, they wanted a female cyclist to be there.

"They're leading the way at the moment, the UK with women's cycling. There is a big hype around the Tour de Yorkshire at the moment and anyone who has done the race last year will tell you it's incredible how many people come out and support you even though it's so early in the day that we start."

Yorkshire has made a priority of having the women use the same course as the men, so this Saturday they will tackle the 122.5km route between Tadcaster and Harrogate which forms stage two of the men's race later in the day.

The finish lends itself to a sprint, but only if the pack can come together again after the imposing Cote de Lofthouse around 60km from the finish.

"It's going to be hard to judge," Garner added. "There is a real climb there but it's in the middle of the race so there's time for it all to come back together and be a bunch sprint. It just depends which teams want to drive it.

"Boels-Dolmans always want to make it a hard race. I think they will want to carry the speed over the climb and break up the peloton but there are lots of others who want a sprint. I think it's going to be an interesting race."

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