EAST Morton rider Annie Simpson is relishing the tough challenge provided by the Asda Women’s Tour de Yorkshire this year.

The former Bingley Grammar School pupil, who is gearing up the UK Cyclo-Cross Championships in Bradford this weekend, is part of the Drops Cycling Team that will be competing in the 122.5km race from Tadcaster to Harrogate on Saturday, April 29.

Like last year’s inaugural race, it will feature in the morning before the second stage of the men’s race, which will take place on the same course.

Though the first women’s event was marred by a lack of television coverage due to technical problems, it was still seen as a big positive for female cycling.

And Simpson, who is orginally from Wilsden, said of this year's route: “It’s really good to have a tougher course for women’s cyclists because sometimes they may have been given an easier stage.

“It shows that women’s cycling is just as thriving as men’s and hopefully we will get on TV this time!”

The 26-year-old, who will be racing in the event for the first time, has already checked out the course and said: “On the profile it looked like one big climb and that is what the stage is centred around but actually the run into Harrogate after that is really tough – it’s very rolling.

“For a women’s race, it will break it up and we might not have the bunch sprint we saw this year.”

Whereas last year’s race from Otley to Doncaster was almost entirely flat, the Tadcaster to Harrogate route heads into the Dales and includes the challenging Cote de Lofthouse.

Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive Sir Gary Verity, who is chief organiser of the event, said: “We asked the question of the riders, ‘If we put this climb in is it going to be too tough? Will it work?’”

“But we road-tested it and some of the riders went out and did it. They said it was tough but doable.”

Simpson has enjoyed success across various cycling disciplines, most recently finishing runner-up in the National Trophy cyclo-cross series.

And she will be going for glory in front of her home crowd in Peel Park in the national championships, with the Northumbria University graduate competing in the elite women's event on Sunday (1.15pm) for Hope Factory Racing.

But having joined Drops in April last year, her main priority is road racing, with the early-season Classics in Belgium the focus ahead of the Tour de Yorkshire.

Her 2016 campaign included races in Norway and Luxembourg, plus the high-profile RideLondon event, while she rode up the notoriously tough Mount Ventoux in the Tour of Ardeche – an experience which should make the climbing en route to Harrogate seem a bit less daunting by comparison.

Simpson will be expected to do plenty of hard yards for her team in the Tour de Yorkshire.

She said: “I’m a bit of an all-rounder. I’m probably more of a workhorse - a domestique - than a protected rider who might win the race.

“I can get over a climb but I’m not the best climber. I’ll take strong turns at the front.”

The 2016 Tour de Yorkshire made history with the prize fund offered in its women’s race – the £50,000 pot was a record for a female event at the time – and this year there will be the same rewards on offer.

Simpson, who also works as a performance nutritionist for her team, believes the profile of the race is already growing.

She said: “Ride London was my first women’s world tour event – that was massive. I’ve done some big races but the Tour de Yorkshire is getting bigger – more and more women’s teams are coming here and it’s going from strength to strength.”