Cyclists up and down the country and across the global peloton would have been forgiven for wincing this week at the sight of the route for stage two of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift which hits Yorkshire next summer.

A brute of a day that begins in Manchester and goes through the Peak District to a finish in Sheffield encompasses 154.4km of racing and some 2,700 metres of climbing.

The organisers proudly announced on Monday that “not one full kilometre is flat” and from experience the closest they’ll come to anything resembling a pancake is the finishing straight on Attercliffe Common through the industrial heartland of the Steel City.

Saturday, July 31, 2027, is the date for your diary for that particular sporting extravaganza when, 13 years after the Tour de France’s rousing visit to this great county, the women’s race will hope to get a similar lift.

In the saddle: Georgina Oakley riding the Lincoln Grand Prix last summer, is excited by the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift coming to Yorkshire next summer. (Picture: Mathew Wells/SWPix.com)

placeholder image — In the saddle: Georgina Oakley riding the Lincoln Grand Prix last summer, is excited by the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift coming to Yorkshire next summer. (Picture: Mathew Wells/SWPix.com)

It all starts 24 hours earlier on the Headrow in Leeds when the Tour de France Femmes rolls out for a Grand Depart that heads out across West Yorkshire, the Pennines and into Manchester on a slightly more genteel 85.7km leg-stretcher.

Day two could be “super brutal” as Yorkshire’s double junior world champion and Tour de France hopeful Cat Ferguson put it this week.

Coming out of Manchester, the peloton will travel through the Peak District up Snake Pass and then Winnats Pass, offering two natural amphitheatres for fans to watch from on this free-to-view sporting spectacle. The race then comes into Sheffield and asks the riders to negotiate Cote d’Jenkin Road, an old favourite from 2014, before the finish in front of the imposing facade of the Forgemasters factory.

Georgina Oakley is a Sheffield cyclist with distant hopes of being on the startline, but one who - given her familiarity with the route - will pick her vantage point carefully should she miss out.

Georgina Oakley (Loughborough Lightning), left, contests the Greyfriars Vineyard Guildford Women’s Grand Prix last summer (Picture: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com)

“I know all the roads pretty well, it’s either up or down and not a lot in between,” offers the 25-year-old who rides for Loughborough Lightning, an elite development team, in Britain.

“For the sprinters it’ll be a hard stage, just try and get round and get to the finish. It’s probably going to favour the climbers and the general classification riders.

“It will probably be a very decisive day in the Tour, definitely an important stage and really cool to watch.”

By her own admission, competing in this once-in-a-generation women’s sporting event is a long shot, but it will not stop her being motivated for it or inspired by it.

Cat Ferguson (Movistar Team) reacts after winning Stage 3 of the Tour of Britain in 2025. She will be a big British hope when the TDF Femmes avec Zwift comes to Yorkshire in 2027 (Picture: Olly Hassell/SWPix.com)

Oakley is a late-comer to cycling, only starting seriously when she was 22.

Before then it was all about horses, up until the realisation dawned she would need bottomless pockets to get to the top of the showjumping world. So she found her way to cycling via a spell in triathlon.

“Good leg strength developed riding horses has helped,” she says, when asked what skills were transferable.

“A lot of people do transfer over from other sports, we get a lot of injured runners, rowers. There’s a few girls who have come from an equestrian background, but you don’t have the endurance. That takes time to develop.”

Oakley rose quickly, shooting through the rankings in her first seven months to earn a spot on the Loughborough squad for the 2024 season. There have been successes along the way, but a lot of learning.

“Definitely a late developer, there’s times when I’ve got no idea what I’m doing, it’s almost like I’m winging it, learning as a much as I can,” she admits.

“It’s been hard with certain things - I’m up against cyclists who have been riding a bike since they could walk. There’s been a few things I’ve missed out on skills wise and endurance wise.”

What she lacks there, she makes up for in other areas, like seizing opportunities. “I’ve started doing tandem riding with the Para team, and had a test with GB to potentially be put on the talent programme for tandem with the potential to go to LA Paralympics,” explains Oakley.

“I need to improve my endurance and power before I test again. But I’m on the radar, which is nice.

“I’m just trying to push it, see where I can get with cycling, take as many opportunities as I can and try different things.”

A fallback option is joining the police, which might still present her with a role in the Tour de France Femmes next summer. Until then, Oakley will use the Tour de France Femmes as an inspiration.

“It’s a long shot, but it can be a huge inspiration and might happen one day for me,” she says.

“Seeing the level I’d love to get to is really inspirational.”