'˜Seismic' change for the women planned

That may sound a grand boast, but Sir Gary Verity is used to pushing the boundaries. Last year’s women’s event, a circuit race around York city centre, was dismissed – not least by current world champion Lizzie Armitstead – as little more than a token gesture.

Verity admits this year’s event, in 23 days’ time, is a deliberate attempt “to address head on the comments and criticisms made in the past”.

The women’s race, sponsored by Asda, will take place on Saturday, April 30, over the same course, from Otley to Doncaster, as the men’s second stage later the same day.

There will be live television coverage and the winner will collect a £15,000 prize, which is more than on offer for the leading man at the end of three days’ hard racing.

“We don’t just want to give parity with the men, we want to go a stage further,” said Verity. “We are trying to seismically change the sport and that’s one of the ways we are going to do that financially.

“In terms of the media profile, we have to make sure we get the same media profile as we do for the men’s race, so we will be live on ITV.

“We are grateful for ITV and to Eurosport for making sure those images go around the world. That will, hopefully, make the job of the women’s teams, when they are out there attracting sponsors, that much more straightforward.”

Yorkshire is now the most lucrative women’s race in the world, but greater reward will require extra effort.

“We didn’t just want to have a flat course that was very benign or a short course,” added Verity.

“We have pushed it pretty much to the limit – 135 kilometres – and we’ve made sure it is exactly the same as the men are riding. There’s three categorised climbs and we have called that stage the ‘Stage of Champions’. It is very important we have a theme to every stage we are doing.

“We have got our latest world champion, Lizzie Armitstead, who is from Otley, the start of the stage. And Tommy Simpson, our first world champion in 1966, was from Harworth, which the race will go through before it comes back via Bawtry into Doncaster for a sprint finish.”