Weekend Interview: No regrets for Annie Simpson as she prepares to line up with cycling's elite in Tour de Yorkshire

RIDING HIGH: Yorkshires Annie Simpson of the Trek Drops team up on the Cow and Calf rocks above Ilkley, scene of the finish to the second stage of next weeks Asda Tour de Yorkshire Womens Race. Picture: Simon Hulme

Anna van der Breggen is the Olympic road race champion, the hottest name in women's cycling right now and a firm favourite to win next week's Asda Tour de Yorshire Women's Race.

Annie Simpson is a semi-professional rider from Bingley with a degree, a masters, and a part-time job as a sports nutritionist in Leeds.

That the two will line up alongside each other and many more on the startline of the two-day women’s race in Beverley on Thursday morning, illustrates both the romance of the Tour de Yorkshire and just how far the sport still has to go to achieve equality.

Because when the men line up a few hours later for the start of their four-day race, the field of 20, six-man teams will have significantly more professionals than it will amateurs.

When the women wheel out, their 20 teams will be represented by a significantly higher percentage of riders who, like Simpson, need a job to make ends meet.

“My job is effectively full-time. I work for OTE Sports, a nutrition company based in Leeds,” says Simpson.

“Fortunately for me they’re very supportive of my racing. Last weekend I was away in Holland and Belgium; yesterday I was in Luxembourg.

“I’m one of a few riders who still have a job.”

Not that she is complaining. Simpson appreciates the value of having a career away from the bike.

She is also grateful to the sport of cycling for the amount of ‘doors it has opened up for me’.

And she acknowledges that the gap is closing; that where once nearly all riders in the women’s peloton needed a job to supplement their hobby, now there are more Van der Breggen’s of this world, fully funded and supported professional cyclists.

“It was very common a few years ago but it’s becoming less so now,” she says.

SADDLE UP: Annie Simpson, left, in race action last year against Sophie Thackray. Picture Bruce Rollinson

“More of the World Tour riders are full-time now.

“A lot of girls still study around their cycling careers, but as the tour grows it’s becoming a lot more viable to make a full-time career out of it.”

At 27, is there any sense of regret for Simpson the acceleration in the closing of the gap didn’t come sooner?

Has the fact that she has never been able to fully commit to professional cycling held her back in what she has been able to achieve?

“Probably,” admits a woman whose career highlights include an Under-23s national mountain bike title and a podium finish in the national road race championships.

“If I was a few years earlier maybe I wouldn’t need a job but I’m at a place in my life where I have a few things I need to pay for. No way are the wages anywhere near where the mens are – but it’s getting there.

“Having the Tour de Yorkshire go to two stages with the same prize money as the men’s race all helps to maintain the snowball effect.”