Our Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (TDFFaZ) 2027 blog is not to be missed as we hone in on Stages 1 to 2 of the race which are virtually on VV HQ’s doorstep! Whether you’re a pro rider looking for local intel on the TDFFaZ climbs, or a spectator wondering where to watch, here we give you the best insider knowledge.
We’ve gone one step further to bring you the ultimate expert on riding the hills of Yorkshire and the Peak District with insights from UK cycling legend and Giro d’Italia stage winner, Lizzy Banks. Having found her passion for cycling in Sheffield and on the roads of the Peak District, Lizzy gives a personal recon of the route. It could be bitter sweet for Lizzy in 2027 as Stages 1 and 2 are littered with her QOMs, and she is more than aware they will be in jeopardy next year!
Now living in Geneva, Lizzy still calls Sheffield home – a testament to the local terrain, as she maintains it offers some of the best riding in the world. Having discovered her passion for cycling in this very place, she gives us a potted history on the start of her cycling career and why she is an authority on all things cycling in Yorkshire.
VV: What’s your relationship with Sheffield on and off the bike?
Lizzy: I came to Sheffield in 2010 and I consider Sheffield my home. It was where I spent the happiest times of my life. I was studying medicine, and met my husband here. I was in a pre-med year at Sheffield City College and it was at this time that I bought a bike with the sole reason so I could get around town more quickly.
In 2014, I started cycling to my psychiatry placement as it was quicker to ride than it was to drive. That was it, I got into this slippery slope and started using Strava – I’d get these fastest times logged and realised I was onto something, and that is when I became completely obsessed with cycling.
The whole of my psychiatry placement I was researching all different road bikes, and with £2000 I’d had left to me by my grandmother I bought a bike and entered the British Universities Hill Climb. I had no idea about racing but I did it, and came 5th, and then thought well if I can come 5th and I can beat some of these people that have been doing it for years, then maybe I could go to the Olympics!
So I started racing the next year, 2015, and at the end of the year I did the hill climb season and won all of the longer races. I started training properly for the first time in the winter of 2015/2016 and then I started my professional career in 2018.
VV: How would you describe the road cycling around Sheffield and the Peak District?
Lizzy: From 2014 when I started riding to when I left in summer 2022 all of my training was on Sheffield roads.
The roads in the Peak District are so challenging. I think you can sometimes look at a profile and think, oh, that doesn’t look too bad, but there isn’t an inch of flat in the Peaks. It’s up and down, it’s left and right, it’s heavy roads a lot of the time, and it can be really, really windy.
I know the Peak District like the back of my hand and I was not someone who just did the same route over and over again. I just always wanted to explore, so my heat map was crazy. I was just so in love with the Peak District and I’m still Sheffield and the Peak District’s biggest fan and advocate.
VV: What were your initial thoughts on Stage 1 Leeds to Manchester?
Lizzy: I actually think Stage 1 is a great stage with the right amount of intrigue. It’s not going to completely tear the peloton to bits, but it is a good stage. It’s got interest in the beginning where we might lose riders, who are then chasing to get back on, who then get back on maybe just before Meltham. They may then get dropped again and have to chase all the way into Manchester, and they do have a chance of getting back on, especially if a strong wind prevents attacks at the front. There’s not a lot of climbs coming into Manchester, obviously there’s 25km, and downhill, and flat, so it could be an interesting finish.
I do think it’s poised to create a great start with a lot of riders who could win, which is, to be honest, what you want at the beginning of a race.
VV: What stood out to you at first sight of Stage 1, could it lend itself well to sprinters?
Lizzy: I think that the beginning of Stage 1 is deceptively hard. All of the roads in Yorkshire and Derbyshire are challenging and have more challenges then you can see just by looking at the profile graphics.
I think just coming out of Leeds, the first 35km has got quite a lot of surprises, even small roads through a housing estate, there are these kickers that are going to start shedding people in the peloton. Pure sprinters, Lorena Wiebes aside, they’re going to struggle out of the blocks on Stage 1.
Of course, it depends how it’s raced but the key thing is the climb out of Meltham. I have the QOM on that one too – not for long! It’s a really hard climb, depending on what the wind’s doing over the ‘Isle of Sky’, that’s the segment name on Strava! On top of the moor above Meltham it could have a massive impact, but the prevailing winds are, of course, that it would be a headwind, and the prevailing winds mean that it would be a headwind the whole day, which does put it more in the hands of a slightly reduced group sprint.
With the hills earlier in the stage it’s more likely that we will have a select group, but I really think that this stage shouldn’t be underestimated. You should never, ever underestimate any roads in Yorkshire!
I mean, if it was a bang southerly or a bang northerly, it could absolutely blow the race to bits across those moors because it is completely exposed.
If the peloton were to go full gas on Meltham it would make it very difficult for Wiebes to keep up, it is a really hard climb. From there the peloton would have to whack it and keep going 40km to the finish with half of it downhill.
VV: How does Stage 2 Manchester to Sheffield compare?
Lizzy: The 2nd stage is absolutely going to blow the peloton apart, there is no question of it! I think that teams will see the profile and they’ll be like, oh, yeah, that looks quite hard, it looks like maybe a bit of a classic stage but when they come and recce it, they’re going to get a bit of a shock! I think they’re going to realise that it’s going to be one of the hardest stages. I can absolutely guarantee it!
It’s going to be similar to what we saw in the Beaujolais vineyards this year on Stage 5 of the TDFFaZ but with a finish that’s actually similar to what we saw on Stage 8 in Nice. This is because we’ve got exactly the same kind of one kilometre wall 6 kilometres out from the finish, which is exactly how we had it in Nice except for we’re finishing in Attercliffe, a Sheffield suburb, instead of the Promenade des Anglais.
VV: Do you think the narrow roads and crowds may impact the racing on Stage 2?
Lizzy: The narrowness of the roads isn’t a problem until we get to Strines.
As they come up through Buxton and then they’re going along the A6, and then you drop down through Miller’s Dale and back up through Tideswell, which is absolutely glorious. Again, one of my all-time favourite places.
They then pop out at Great Hucklow into Bradwelll and then when the road gets narrow is when you’re going up Winnats Pass, and there, of course, there will be an absolute wall of fans.
Winnats Pass is going to be one of the hardest points of the race, it’s going to be beautiful, but it’s not actually going to be the defining moment of the race. It’ll just be part of that whittling down process.
VV: Where would be good for a break on this stage?
Lizzy: Between Longhill and Castleton is a perfect place for a break, in fact coming out of Buxton actually is a really good place for a break to go. So once you get to the top of Long Hill, the peloton will be reduced a little bit. You’ll drop down into Buxton. Everybody will look at each other because they’ve lost some people. You can maybe send a break away up the road there if it hasn’t already gone on Long Hill.
So the hard thing for a break is it’s going to have to be a really, really strong break, because then there’s the climb up the A6 and the climb up out of Miller’s Dale up through Tideswell, they’re not easy climbs, but they still go uphill significantly, much more so than Long Hill.
So it’s definitely an opportunity for a break where the GC riders are thinking, okay I’m going to keep my powder dry until later on, because one bit of the course I think is really hard, is when you’re going between Chapel-on-le-Frith and Glossop, either side of Hayfield on Chunal Road. You’ve got two really steep, really nasty kickers, that’s the kind of thing where people are already tired and it’s an uncategorised climb, you could lose really significant teammates there.
Or people will be having this little period in the middle of the race where they just feel a bit tired and maybe get distanced and you’ve still got Snake Pass coming up and then you’ve got the whole of Strines, which is going to be really challenging.
Strines is incredibly difficult because of the steepness of the climbs, the repeatability, the fact that there’s absolutely no rest because it goes bolt upright, then you’re really fast down, and then it’s upright again.
Especially from second Strines climb at Agden onwards it’s so fast down to High Bradfield it’s all about positioning – this is absolutely critical because coming down into High Bradfield, that road is so incredibly fast. You have this sweeping left hand bend, and then you’re on Cote du Bradfield. From the top of that it’s like an arrow down through Worrall, and then you hit Jawbone Hill, which is just so steep and so brutal. So once you get to Strines, it’s like bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, and then you’re at the finish.
VV: Is there anyone that you think would go out long, and who would you have eyes on to win the Stage?
Lizzy: It’s very early in the race to pull a move like that. If we come into the situation where we’ve got a rider with a team with two very clear leaders, then somebody could go on the Snake Pass if the wind is in their favour. If you have got the prevailing winds, then you’re going to have a tailwind all the way from Glossop to Sheffield. It would be a bold move to go that early in the race when the peloton will naturally whittle down anyway.
It’s hard to look past Demi Vollering but I can totally see us having an absolute mirror image of the World Champs – Elisa Longo Borghini and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, going head to head on these kinds of climbs.
It’s absolutely perfect for the three of them, especially with how steep these climbs are, it’s very hard to look past Demi Vollering who’s going to be wearing the World Champions bands, if she’s not wearing the yellow jersey already.
I think this stage will set the GC in motion and show who is in line for the GC and who isn’t, but that doesn’t mean the race is done.
VV: How would you treat the climbs like Winnats Pass and Jenkin Road?
Lizzy: You just have to go, you know, you have to treat the top of that hill as your finish line. I won the hill climb up Jenkin Road in 2016 with a time of 3.14 pushing 395 watts and still hold the QOM so I know you can push hard!
I would also treat the top of Winnats like your finish line, as once you come across the top and drop round, there’s a nasty off camber corner where there can be absolutely storming winds, like a southwesterly wind prevailing and that’s a cross head. If that’s the case and you haven’t approached Winnats like your finish line and not gone hard that could be your race over.
VV: What are your favourite climbs in Stage 2?
Lizzy: The climbs in Strines going along Mortimer Road up first Strine and then the second Strine, that one is actually my favourite place in the world to ride. I love it so much.
In late July we’ve got the purple heather just about to pop and the views towards Sheffield, I think it’s one of the most magical places to ride a bike. It is the 4th biggest city in the UK, you can drop into the Loxley Valley, into Bradfield, into Strines, in no time at all, and then you can be in the city centre in 10 minutes with all of the amenities.
There is no better place in the UK to ride a bike than Strines, and we’ve got it for the last 25 kilometres of the biggest race on the women’s calendar and I’m just overjoyed.
The very first time I purposefully went to watch a bike race was the 2014 Tour de France, and I sat on the hill above High Bradfield, and I waited for the peloton to come past, and it was Geraint Thomas in Team Sky kit, and it was so exciting, the atmosphere was just electric. That was one of the things that made me fall in love with cycling.
To see now, the women’s Tour de France coming to Sheffield, having that same finish from High Bradfield. To see them doing that route, which is really quite an iconic route is so special.
We always held the varsity hill climb between Sheffield Uni and Sheffield Hallam at High Bradfield – I’ve also got that QOM!
For anybody who rides in Sheffield, it’s a very, very special place. It’s a beautiful place. It’s one of the only places that you can go where there’s just, you know, hundreds of roads to ride. You can do, you know, like 100 kms and not cross the same road twice – it’s brutally hard, but so beautiful.
VV: Where would you recommend to watch Stage 2 of the TDF FaZ?
Lizzy: Some of the main spots to go and the best spots will be High Bradfield, Jawbone Hill and Jenkin Road. As a cyclist you would also have time to get to Winnat’s Pass and then ride back into Sheffield to see the finish, as once the pros have been up there they have to go over to Chapel-en-le-Frith and the Strines.
Ready to have your own TDF FaZ moment in 2027?
If you’ve loved Lizzy’s TDFFaZ recce, why not have your own Tour moment? Ride all 9 stages of the 2027 race with The Route, in aid of Cure Leukaemia. VeloViewer’s Anna took on this fully supported event in 2026, and whether you go for all 9 stages, or try the ‘Taste of the Route’ with the first two, it’s an experience you’ll never forget.
Find out more via the link and sign up for their introductory webinar on Wednesday 18th November where you can hear from previous riders about this amazing experience.
