The Tour of Britain will return to Yorkshire this September, with another stage being planned to take place amid the afterglow of Britain hosting the Tour de France Grand Départ in the summer of 2027.

York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority has partnered with British Cycling to bring elite racing back to the county for 2026 and 2027, after Yorkshire was absent from the men’s Tour of Britain route in 2025.

The newly inked proposal will see North Yorkshire hosting a full stage of the men's Tour of Britain in 2026, with another stage planned for 2027, which will take place just a few weeks after the eagerly expected Grand Départ for the Tour de France has swept across the UK, albeit with the men’s route skirting around the county that locals like to call ‘God’s Own Country’.

In 2027, the three-stage curtain-raising ride for the 114th edition of the Tour de France will start in Scotland, leaving from Edinburgh on 2 July and heading south into northern England, passing along the western side of the country, through Carlisle, Keswick and Liverpool, before crossing into Wales and coming to an end in Cardiff on 4 July.

Due to take place almost a month later, the route of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift features plenty of Yorkshire, however, with the action starting in Leeds on 30 July and the peloton threading through Sheffield before heading south to finish in London.

The white-rose county was setting for the spectacularly successful 2014 Grand Départ, when a sun-splashed weekend saw an estimated 2.5 million cycling fans line roadsides along a route that passed through Leeds, Harrogate, Sheffield and York to see stars including Mark Cavendish and (who crashed out on the Saturday) and ultimate winner of that year’s Tour, Italian rider Vincenzo Nibali (XDS Astana).

The Tour of Britain stages have been secured with £350,000 of mayoral investment funding, while extra costs for elements including road closures and traffic management (expected to total £400,000) being split between the local authorities involved. However, organisers say each stage of the Tour of Britain can generate between £2m and £12m for the local economy of the areas it passes through.

A spokesperson from British Cycling has said that more details about venues and host locations for the upcoming Tour of Britain will be announced in the coming weeks, so watch this space.

“We are delighted to [be] agreeing this partnership with the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority and bringing the Lloyds Tour of Britain to the region over the next two years," said Jonathan Day, Director of Events at British Cycling Ventures.

"We have seen some exceptional racing in North Yorkshire over the last few years, most recently with the women’s race starting at the Forestry England site of Dalby Forest in 2025. The area brings entertaining racing for the riders, exceptional backdrops for broadcast, and enthusiastic crowds across the route. We are looking forward to working with partners across 2026 and 2027.”

After a breakdown in negotiations, the hugely successful Tour de Yorkshire event will not be returning to the calendar, but a new race is set to replace it.

The event first ran in 2015, as a legacy from the previous year's Tour de France Grand Depart, in the county. LIke many other events it was cancelled in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but since then has not returned. Past winners of the men’s race include Greg Van Avermaet and Thomas Voeckler. 

After the pandemic, talks took place between Silicon Dales (a group which bought the rights to the race) and the owners of the Tour de France, Amaury Sports Organisation. 

Both groups looked to continue the partnership which has previously delivered the race, however it has now been revealed that the talks have failed to find a resolution to bring back the event. 

This morning, the Yorkshire Post revealed that the organisers of the Tour of Britain and Women’s Tour, SweetSpot, have been part of an agreement in principle to deliver a new race in Yorkshire in 2024. 

The two groups plan to deliver a new race in the region to coincide with the 10-year anniversary of the popular Grand Depart of the Tour de France in the area. The original Tour de Yorkshire was a four-day race for the men, with a two day event for the women’s equivalent, although the new race is likely to be a one-day classics style race. 

According to the Yorkshire Post, it is hoped that the event will be able to carry the same UCI ranking. It is also believed that the new race will include both a men’s and women’s race, both of equal standing. Due to ASO currently owning the Tour de Yorkshire name, organisers of the new race are seeking to create a new name in order to help shape an identity for the event. 

Silicon Dales, which gained a number of Welcome to Yorkshire’s assets earlier this year when the company was put into administration, has sought to reform the agency and prepare to deliver other cycling events in Yorkshire. The company have been trading again as Welcome to Yorkshire since earlier this month. 

The company’s owner, Robin Scott, told the Yorkshire Post: “We couldn’t have tried any harder to get an agreement with ASO for the Tour de Yorkshire event, but we needed a partner on the delivery side who wanted the event to go ahead in the future. In SweetSpot, who organise the Tour of Britain, we have found a partnership which will be good for Yorkshire.”

The deal with SweetSpot has not been completely finalised and signed off, although it’s likely that any arrangement would also see stages of both the Tour of Britain and Women’s Tour visit Yorkshire in 2023. The Tour of Britain is due to visit Yorkshire in September this year, with stage four taking place between Redcar and Helmsley.

Scott added: “In 2024, we’re hoping to deliver a marquee event for the region which evokes a similar energy to the amazing 2014 Tour de France Grand Depart we remember so fondly.”

On the return of the Tour of Britain to Yorkshire, Hugh Roberts of SweetSpot said: 

"We are looking forward to returning to Yorkshire this September for what is going to be one of the toughest stages of this year’s race. The route takes in the beautiful coastline around Whitby and the tough climbs of the North York Moors so it will be great way to return in style!"

The Tour de Yorkshire has been cancelled for another year and potentially forever due to various issues with money as well as the impact of Covid-19.

The race, along with Welcome to Yorkshire, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) and the other organisers and partners, announced in a statement that the 2022 edition will not be going ahead.

This comes after the seemingly positive news that all but three of the county's councils were willing to pay a combined extra £600,000, but it was not enough to get the funds up to the £2 million needed.

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Welcome to Yorkshire was keen to emphasise that the race was a success and that it will continue to host international events. Adding that other events such as horse racing, cricket and golf were still taking place.

The reaction from fans has, as expected, been negative with lots of replies on Twitter showing disappointment, anger and even blame.

One fan said: "Tour de Yorkshire gave Yorkshire something unique, giving the world a window into the county, in a way Ebor week, Cricket Festival and Golf can’t. All expensive primarily corporate events, TDY gave everyone a free family day out, something that is more important than ever."

With another adding his disgust at the way the tourist board along with ASO handled the issues. 

"This is an absolute disgrace ! Other more ambitious local authorities in the UK will be jostling to take this over. Yorkshire’s global image is severely dented & the financial impact on our tourist industry is irreparable! This smacks of incompetence & parochial jealousies."

Former president of the UCI, Brian Cookson OBE was one of many notable names to add their thoughts. He went for the simple "disappointing news."

Cycling Weekly columnist Michael Hutchinson said: "Very sad news -- was a great event. The Harrogate World Champs turns out to have been a classic not-so-much-the-end-of-the-beginning-as-the-beginning-of-the-end moment."

Another fan took to blaming the government for not supporting the race as the Tour of Britain is the only major stage race remaining in the UK.

"How many UCI races do France, Belgium, Italy and Holland host in a year, and this country can’t muster 2? Grant Shapps and Sajid Javid you are supposed to be promoting healthy transport"

Something that was clear about the race is the positive impact it had on the county with yellow and blue bikes dotted around the Yorkshire countryside. 

"A drive in the Yorkshire countryside isn’t complete without seeing a yellow bicycle. I don’t think there’s ever been a sorting event that a region has quite taken into its heart. A sad day"

Writer Robyn Davidson posted her disappointment: "Tour de Yorkshire has passed away. RIP u will live on forever. Can't believe it. I wanna run to u. Really can't believe this."

Some, however, are not giving up hope on a race in 2023.

"What? But it’s next year? hopefully back bigger and stronger in ‘23."

Writer for The Guardian and author Jeremy Whittle added: "Sad news. There seemed briefly, to be new momentum in the links between ASO and Yorkshire - local authorities were being lobbied, Gary Verity (although no longer connected to TDY obvs) was a guest on the ‘21 Tour. But raising funds remained a sticking point to the end."

"Done and dusted it seems. I'm sure those thousands of people at the roadsides in all the town's, villages and cities across Yorkshire can't wait to go to Scarborough cricket festival instead..."

The Tour de Yorkshire will not be taking place in 2022 after various complications have made the running of the event impossible.

There were plans in place to bring the race back for 2022 after two years of being cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic and uncertainty around safety. 

But since then the issues of the pandemic, rising costs, and Welcome to Yorkshire having to pay for two enquiries into an expenses and bullying scandal have taken their toll.

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In a press release, Welcome to Yorkshire confirmed with Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) that the race will not be going ahead next year.

"Following lengthy discussions between race organisers, Welcome to Yorkshire and ASO over many months, it is with regret, that by mutual consent,  the 2022 Tour de Yorkshire cycling race will not be going ahead.

"The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, combined with escalating financial challenges and uncertainties have led to an agreed position that the event would be unviable in 2022."

The Tour de Yorkshire came about after the county held the Grand Départ of the Tour de France back in 2014 with the first edition of the Tour de Yorkshire coming less than a year later. 

The race had attracted some of the world's best riders with the likes of Marcel Kittel, Caleb Ewan, Dylan Groenewegen, Chris Froome, Thomas Vouckler, Bradley Wiggins, and former winner Greg Van Avermaet all participating.

The race also led to the UCI World Championships being held in the county with its major hub in the town of Harrogate.

"Welcome to Yorkshire’s partnership with ASO to bring world-class cycling to Yorkshire has been hugely successful and incredibly beneficial to the county," the statement continued.

"Welcome to Yorkshire can confirm that their ambition to continue hosting international events is as strong as ever and this is the beginning of a whole new positive plan to showcase Yorkshire globally through dedicating time to varied and exciting opportunities."

It is not yet clear if the Tour de Yorkshire will ever return or if any major bike race will take place in the county, but Welcome to Yorkshire was keen to emphasise it is holding other events including horse racing and golf.

It had looked like the race may be saved when recently all but three councils committed to giving the race an extra £600,000 with Leeds, Calderdale, and Kirklees councils holding off confirming that they would also invest.

The Tour de Yorkshire has secured a potential £600,000 taxpayer investment to help secure its future. 

According to the Yorkshire Post, six local authorities in Yorkshire have agreed in principal to each contribute £100,000 to the cost of running the event, to cover any shortfall in sponsorship. 

North Yorkshire, Barnsley, Richmondshire, East Riding, Redcar & Cleveland and Craven have all agreed to pitch in a total of £600,000 if needed, while a number of councils in the area have not yet made a decision on financially supporting the race. 

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Race organiser ASO, which also runs the Tour de France, has said it will not accept any losses from the Tour de Yorkshire, so the money would be needed to cover any sponsorship shortfall.

Welcome to Yorkshire, the tourism board which helps run the event, has been trying to revive the race after it was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, James Mason told the Yorkshire Post: "It’s really positive news that local authorities Barnsley, Richmondshire, East Riding, Skipton, and Redcar and Cleveland have all confirmed that they would be willing to provide the extra funding, if required, to host the county’s Tour de Yorkshire cycling event in 2022.

"Decisions are expected from other host councils in the near future, including Leeds, Kirklees and Calderdale."

Mason previously admitted bringing back the Tour de Yorkshire has proved "far more divisive than I could ever have imagined" following concerns about the use of taxpayer money. 

The race, according to Mason, costs £2 million to fund with a mix of sponsors and local authorities covering the fees. The 2018 edition of the race brought in a whopping £98 million to the Yorkshire economy. 

But the Tour de Yorkshire, first held in 2015 as part of the legacy of the Tour de France grand départ from the county in 2014, has been in crisis since 2019 when the former  Welcome To Yorkshire CEO Gary Verity resigned following a bullying and expenses scandal. 

The race is currently scheduled to return in 2022, as the organisers plan to use the route that was meant to be run in 2020.

This would be a four-day-long race for the men with stages from Beverley to Redcar, Skipton to Leyburn, Barnsley to Huddersfield and finally the usual monster stage of Halifax to Leeds. A two-day women’s race is also planned for the middle two stages.

The Tour de Yorkshire 2021 has been postponed, the race organisers have announced.

After the 2020 edition was cancelled due to the global coronavirus pandemic, with the race being rescheduled for next year, event managers have now confirmed that the 2021 edition will also be postponed due to Covid-19.

A statement from the organisers said: "Unfortunately, the 2021 Tour de Yorkshire will be postponed until 2022. It was a difficult decision to make but given the developing Covid-19 situation, Welcome to Yorkshire and ASO will instead focus on bringing the race back bigger and better than ever in 2022." 

The announcement is further confirmation that the coronavirus pandemic will continue to effect the cycling season beyond 2020, after the Tour Down Under, the first WorldTour race of the season, was cancelled earlier this month.

The Tour de Yorkshire, normally held in early May, was cancelled this year when as coronavirus continued to spread, but next year's edition has also been pushed back.

Organised by the Welcome to Yorkshire tourism board and the organisers of the Tour de France ASO, the men's and women's Tour de Yorkshire are popular British events.

Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive James Mason said: "During this uncertain times, Welcome to Yorkshire need to focus on the immediate needs of the industry without committing both financial and human resources towards any activity or event that we cannot be certain of.

"Whilst it is very disappointing that we will be bereft of this wonderful race for another year, the decision we have made is the right one and perhaps the only one we could make.

"The uncertainty in front of us meant it was impossible to plan or commit the resource that the race needs."

Welcome to Yorkshire had been facing difficulties before the coronavirus pandemic, after former CEO Gary Verity resigned in march last year after admitting he "made errors of judgement regarding his expenses."

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Concerns were also raised over Verity’s behaviour towards staff, although Welcome to Yorkshire said these matters were not directly linked to his departure.

The organisation has also faced financial difficult, earlier this year asking for a £1.4million bailout in public money, saying it would face closure if the money could not be found.

The Tour de Yorkshire is under threat as the organisers are seeking a financial bail-out.

Welcome to Yorkshire, the tourism board responsible for organising the popular British race, is requesting a further £1.4million public money and says it will have to consider closure if the money cannot be raised.

Director of the private company, Peter Box, has written to councils in Yorkshire asking for a cash injection but has been met with resistance from politicians, The Yorkshire Post reports.

Welcome to Yorkshire has faced controversy and financial difficulty recently, including CEO Gary Verity resigning last year amid an expenses and bullying scandal.

In a letter published by The Yorkshire Post this week, Box said taxpayer money was needed to support Welcome to Yorkshire for the rest of the financial year, until a new funding system could be found.

But the leader of Rydedale Council, Keane Duncan, responded saying his authority would not be offering up its £33,000 share, suggesting that Welcome to Yorkshire should fold in order to be replaced by a new tourism body.

Hambleton Council leader Mark Robson agreed, withholding £53,000 and saying he needs more evidence of where the money is going.

He said: ”I am not prepared to put something into an organisation that I am not sure will be around in the next financial year.”

Welcome to Yorkshire CEO Verity resigned in March last year, citing health reason and admitting he had “made errors of judgement regarding his expenses”.

The findings of an independent investigation identified £26,000 of expenses had been claimed for “personal” items without a business justification. £25,800 of this total were claims related to Verity and the 55-year-old has since voluntarily repaid £25,000 to the organisation.

Concerns were also raised over Verity’s behaviour towards staff, although Welcome to Yorkshire said these matters were not directly linked to his departure.

Verity was a key figure in bringing the Tour de France to Yorkshire in 2014 and in running the Tour de Yorkshire, which was set up the following year as part of the legacy of the Tour’s Grand Départ.

In November last year, news emerged that Welcome to Yorkshire had 12 months to repay a £500,000 rescue loan given to them by councils to prevent its collapse.

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The privately-run organisation, which has received millions in public funding, runs the Tour de Yorkshire alongside Tour de France organiser ASO.

The full route for the 2020 Tour de Yorkshire has been announced, it has since been postponed due to the global pandemic. no new dates have been released as of yet.

The four stages of the men's race and two stages of the women's race have been unveiled at the Civil Hall in Leeds, with a hilly parcours set to once again entertain fans with spectacular racing.

Stage one of the men's race makes its way from Beverley to Redcar, taking in the climbs of Hooks House Farm and Lythe Bank.

Skipton hosts the start of stage two and culminates in Leyburn, with riders set to tackle Buttertubs and Grinton Moor en route - an exciting prospect after both climbs were removed from the men's World Championship road race last year because of the weather. This stage will also provide the first of the stages in the women's race, who will race exactly the same route.

Stage three for the men begins in Barnsley and finishes in Huddersfield, with the latter featuring in the race for the first time ever. The final day of the women's race will follow a similar course but will be 20km shorter than the men's route on this stage due to UCI regulations and will feature slightly less climbing as a result.

The final stage four, known as the 'Yorkshire classic', runs from Halifax's Piece Hall for a third year to Leeds and will feature the most climbing of any Tour de Yorkshire stage in history, totalling over 3,000m.

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The 2020 Tour de Yorkshire will run from April 30 to May 3, with the women's race taking place on May 1 and May 2.

Speaking at the Yorkshire route unveiling, Tour de France race director Christian Prudhomme said: "It will be tough, hard and challenging for women and men. It will be demanding but it's Yorkshire. Steep climbs, iconic climbs."

Stage one: Beverley to Redcar (176.5km)

Stage one will depart from Beverley and finish in Redcar, which organisers are calling the 'Yorkshire coast' stage. Along the route, it will feature categorised climbs at Hooks House Farm and Lythe Bank, with 1,718m of climbing over the 176.5km course.

Stage two: Skipton to Leyburn (124.5km)

Stage two departs from Skipton with the finish line situated in Leyburn, the 'Three Peaks' stage. As well as the men's second stage, the same 124.5km route will be used as the first stage of the women's race. Featuring both Buttertubs and Grinton Moor climbs, the stage features 1,747m of uphill.

Stage three: Barnsley to Huddersfield (134km/114km)

Barnsley will host the start of stage three, the third time in three years the town has hosted a start or finish in the British stage race. The stage will then end in a brand new location for the race, Huddersfield. Christened the 'heritage stage', once again the route will also provide the women's race with their second and final stage, with the women's stage being 114km long and the men's 134km.

The men's stage features 2,863m of climbing, including six ascents, with the women's race featuring only slightly less uphill racing. The climbs are Netherthong, Scapegoat Hill, Todmorden, Hebden Bridge, Leeming and Shibden Wall, the cobbled climb that is only featuring for the second time.

Stage four: Halifax to Leeds (177.5km)

Known as the 'Yorkshire classic', which will run for the third year in a row, the final stage will start in Halifax and finish in Leeds. Organisers say it's the toughest day in the race, featuring seven classified climbs totalling 3,304m of climbing, the most that has ever been included in a single stage of the race. The 177.5km route takes in the ascents of Goose Eye, Barden Moor, Skyreholme, Lofthouse, Greenhow Hill, Cow and Calf and Otley Chevin. The race will also pass through Skipton for the second time in three days.

This edition of the Tour de Yorkshire route will take in eight host locations including Halifax, Barnsley, Huddersfield and Leeds.

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It will be a return to Yorkshire for many riders who contested the 2019 World Championships course, with the men's road race won by Dane, Mads Pedersen.

The 2020 Tour de Yorkshire will form part of the inaugural UCI ProSeries, which operates one level below the WorldTour calendar.

Despite their current financial difficulties, Welcome to Yorkshire has said it's "a case of when not if" either the Tour de France returns to the county or the Vuelta a España is welcomed for the very first time.

It was recently revealed the tourist board has just 12 months to repay a £500,000 loan that prevented its collapse, but the organisation is focused further ahead on when it will next host a Grand Tour.

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"We are still on course for that big prize [of hosting a Grand Tour]," the commercial director of Welcome to Yorkshire, Peter Dodds, told The Yorkshire Post.

Dodds says talks are ongoing and it is only a matter of time before the race returns to northern England: "The Tour de France has been here once, when will the second time be? We’re still having the conversations and it is still very much a case of when, not if."

Welcome to Yorkshire is not just focused on the French Grand Tour, however, but its Spanish counterpart the Vuelta a España.

The race has only started outside of Spain on three occasions previously, in Portugal (1997), Netherlands (2009) and France (2017) but will venture abroad for a fourth time in 2020 as the Grand Départ takes place in Utrecht, the Netherlands, where the Tour de France started from in 2015.

"We are still talking to Javier Guillen [the Vuelta a España race director] about the Vuelta," said Dodds.

Welcome to Yorkshire runs the Tour de Yorkshire British stage race alongside ASO, with the French company also organising both the Tour de France and Vuelta, with the close ties seemingly aiding bringing either race to Britain.

2022 would be the next possible year the Vuelta could make its way to Yorkshire, with the Tour's earliest return potentially being in 2023, after the 2021 edition will begin in Denmark and have to return to France for 2022.

Dodds says they're working with a timeframe of around the year 2025: "We’re looking five years, six years, but definitely the conversations are there."

His confidence stems from the popularity of the Tour de Yorkshire, with the host locations of the 2020 edition announced this week, as the race enters its sixth year.

"We were twice over-subscribed for locations for the Tour de Yorkshire for 2020 and beyond," Dodds said. "So it’s how you fit these things into the calendar."

Barnsley, Beverley, Halifax, Skipton and Leeds will be familiar places for riders and fans, but new locations Huddersfield, Leyburn and Redcar will offer up fresh roads.

The privately-run organisation, which has received millions in public funding, was plunged into crisis after an expenses scandal involving CEO Gary Verity, who resigned citing health reasons and admitted he had "made errors of judgement regarding his expenses".

The findings of an independent investigation identified £26,000 of expenses had been claimed for "personal" items without a business justification. £25,800 of this total were claims related to Verity and the 55-year-old has since voluntarily repaid £25,000 to the organisation.

Accountancy firm BDO, the review’s investigators, were unable to evaluate whether £900,000 worth of expenses claimed over six years were "reasonable" due to a lack of transparent spending rules.

Welcome to Yorkshire have just 12 months to repay a £500,000 loan given to them by their council, which prevented the tourism agency's collapse in September.

The privately-run organisation, which has received millions in public funding, runs the Tour de Yorkshire alongside Tour de France organiser ASO.

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According to the Yorkshire Post, without the loan Welcome to Yorkshire (WTY) would have run out of money in September and stuff would have been left unpaid. The loan was secured against a £1 million property in York owned by WTY and has to be repaid by November 2015.

The arrangement between WTY and North Yorkshire County Council of the option to take out a loan was put in place in June 2015, and the tourism agency have exercised this option just inside of the five-year limit given to the agreement.

Following the loan from the council, WTY also obtained £1 million of support from North and West Yorkshire councils in October but this agreement, which involved a marketing campaign for the North York Moors, was shelved after concerns over WTY's financial sustainability were raised.

Police investigations are currently ongoing into the Welcome to Yorkshire expenses scandal, after CEO Gary Verity resigned in March earlier this year, citing health reason and admitting he had "made errors of judgement regarding his expenses".

The findings of an independent investigation identified £26,000 of expenses had been claimed for "personal" items without a business justification. £25,800 of this total were claims related to Verity and the 55-year-old has since voluntarily repaid £25,000 to the organisation.

Accountancy firm BDO, the review’s investigators, were unable to evaluate whether £900,000 worth of expenses claimed over six years were “reasonable” due to a lack of transparent spending rules.

Concerns were also raised over Verity’s behaviour towards staff, although Welcome to Yorkshire said these matters were not directly linked to his departure.

A former personal assistant to Verity, Annie Drew, said he would "shout, scream, swear and throw things sometimes at people". She also claimed she was asked to make expense claims in her name on his behalf – an allegation that has been strongly denied.

WTY are currently in the process of making new appointments to their management.

Chris Froome has shared the revealing Strava stats from a tough final stage of the Tour de Yorkshire.

The Team Ineos leader took on a support role on home soil, which helped propel sprinter Chris Lawless to overall victory.

Froome played a key part on Sunday (May 5) as he split the race apart on the final climb of the day, with Lawless able to hold onto the wheel of stage winner Greg Van Avermaet (CCC Team) to take the general classification victory.

Strava stats show how much effort Froome put in on the day.

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The four-time Tour de France winner hit a staggering max speed over 95km/h on the road from Halifax to Leeds, averaging 36.9km/h over the 175km stage.

It was the final climb of the day, Otley Chevin, where Froome really came to life and helped his team-mate to victory.

The category three ascent is 2km-long at an average of eight per cent and Froome made it to the top in 5-27, one second slower than reigning King of the Mountain Van Avermaet.

Despite the brutal gradients on the climb, Froome held an average speed of 22.9km/h on the slopes and hit a maximum of 50km/h.

Another famous climb along the stage four parcours was Park Rash but it featured only 67km into the day, so Froome rode at a relatively easy pace.

He still crested the 2km-long 10 per cent average rise in 10-31.

The KoM holder on Park Rash is Maximilian Stedman (Canyon-dhb), who completed the climb in an unparalleled 7-33.

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Froome finished 18th on the stage, just 12 seconds down on stage winner Van Avermaet.

That secured a 13th-place overall finish – not a bad result in a race that is more suited to punchy Classics specialists than Grand Tour contenders.

Froome will now enter the final stages of his Tour de France preparation, with the Critérium du Dauphiné in June before the main event in July.

Chris Lawless (Team Ineos) says following Greg Van Avermaet's attack with 5km to go on the final stage of the Tour de Yorkshire was the deepest he ever had to go to in a bike race.

Lawless was able to hold on to take the overall win by two seconds over Van Avermaet, who won the final stage into Leeds after attacking with 5km to the finish on the final uncategorised climb to bridge to Eddie Dunbar (Team Ineos) out front, with the three arriving at the finish together and Van Avermaet sprinting to the stage win.

Such was the devastation of the Belgian's initial attack, no-one from the main group was able to follow aside from race leader Lawless, who says the overall win makes up for missing out on the stage win to Scarborough on stage three on Saturday, which left him "genuinely gutted."

"When I got to the top of the climb with 5km to go [I knew I could win]," Lawless said.

"I got dropped on the Chevin climb and [Owain] Doull did a big shift to get me back to the main group. I knew that Greg was going to go. I was ready for it. On a climb like that I’ve got that length of effort and I had a chance of staying with him.

"It’s the deepest I’ve ever dug. If I had to pick out a point that was the race winning effort.

"I was genuinely gutted after losing in Scarborough. Dave Brailsford rang to give him a pep talk. He said I could do it, I just had to believe in myself."

For Van Avermaet - who had a disappointing spring Classics campaign by his own high standards - taking second overall and the win on the queen stage from Halifax to the Leeds was some consolation heading into a mid-season break ahead of the Tour de France in July.

The Olympic champion crashed in his final Classic at Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday, but was able to gradually look stronger throughout the race, placing himself in contention to defend his overall title after finishing third in the sprint to Scarborough on stage three.

"It’s always good to have a win in the end and I think my spring campaign was not too bad, but also not super," Van Avermaet said.

"I was fighting in every final until Liège-Bastogne-Liège for a good result; I had a few.

"I think I had quite good legs in Flanders and Roubaix but the result was not showing what I could do there. So it was a bit of a disappointment in those two races and I’m expecting much more from myself in these kind of races. [This win] makes it a little bit better, but for sure races like Flanders and Roubaix are more important for me.

"Tactically wise I don’t think there was more that we could do today," he added.

"I’m quite happy with the stage win and second in the overall, it’s also something. I bridged to Dunbar and Lawless was the only guy that could follow me on the climb and for me there was nothing else to do but win the stage.

"He was a bit afraid if the group came back he couldn’t win the overall, so I think for me and him it was a good situation and I couldn’t take more out of it than a second place and winning on the streets of Leeds in the queen stage is also something really nice."

Greg Van Avermaet (CCC Team) won stage four of the Tour de Yorkshire as Chris Lawless claimed the overall victory for a first stage race win for Team Ineos.

The Brit followed Van Avermaet's wheel to the line to protect his six second lead over the Belgian, as they finished in a group of three alongside Eddie Dunbar (Team Ineos).

The Irishman proved a vital lieutenant in the final, holding off a late charge from Alexander Kamp (Riwal Readynez), who was on the same time as Lawless at the start of the day.

Chris Froome (Team Ineos) split the race up the final climb of the day at Otley Chevin, taking team-mate Dunbar and Van Avermaet with him.

Dunbar then launched from this group, catching the remnants of the day's breakaway, before Van Avermaet attacked the bunch with 5km remaining, leaving everyone behind apart from Lawless, who managed to get onto his wheel.

Dunbar, Lawless and Van Avermaet then worked together into the finish in Leeds, holding off chase groups behind from getting back on, with the Olympic champion Van Avermaet taking the stage win and Lawless winning the overall victory by two seconds from the Belgian. Dunbar's heroics also moved the Irishman up to third place, 11 seconds behind his team-mate.

How it happened

The fifth and final stage of the Tour de Yorkshire was a 175km course punctuated by steep and short climbs, with the final two ascents poised to potentially animate the GC contest, with a number of riders still in the hunt for the overall classification.

The day's breakaway consisted of nine riders: Pierre Rolland (Vital Concept - B&B Hotels), Jonathan Hivert (Total Direct Energie), Jake Scott (SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling), Johnny McEvoy (Madison Genesis), Joey Walker (Madison Genesis), Arnaud Courteille (Vital Concept - B&B Hotels), Julen Irizar (Euskadi Basque Country - Murias), Victor Lafay (Cofidis), Ethan Hayter (Great Britain). They had gained a three minute advantage after 60km of racing, after which the gap slowly started to decrease.

At the Cote de Park Rash, the breakaway had a gap of 2-25, when Jake Scott hit out early to try and claim the king of the mountains points, but made his effort too soon as Arnaud Courteille went around him to reach the summit first.

60km later, Riwal Readynez came to the front of the peloton and hit the gas up Greenhow Hill, looking to put pressure on the race leader Chris Lawless (Team Ineos) who sat on the same time as their man Alexander Kamp, the Dane beating the Brit in the sprint finish on stage four.

This effort reduced the breakaway's advantage to 1-12, and put a number of riders in the peloton into difficulty, with Ian Stannard (Team Ineos) dropped and Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) and Jacob Scott (SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling) also starting to lose touch, the latter's KOM challenge now over.

Back at the front of the race on Greenhow Hill, three members of the breakaway broke free, the French climbers Lafay, Hivert and Courteille distancing the rest of the group. Courteille went over the top first, winning the king of the mountains competition regardless of the result on the last climb of the race up to Otley Chevin.

With 45km to go, remnants of the breakaway began to be swept up, with another 15km elapsing before Pierre Rolland and Ethan Hayter were also caught. Now the race was between the three French leaders and the rest of the peloton, with CCC, Team Ineos and Riwal Readynez taking up chasing responsibilities with the gap at 1-27.

Courteille hit out alone on the Otley Chevin, leaving behind Lafay and Hivert, with the gap over the peloton down to 27 seconds.

Chris Froome then attacked the peloton on this climb with 21km remaining, splitting the bunch and taking a few riders with him, including Greg Van Avermaet and Eddie Dunbar.

Dunbar then launched from the Chris Froome group, with the peloton containing race leader Chris Lawless reeling the group back in.

Dunbar soon caught Lafay and Hivert, dragging them back up to Courteille, the four-man group holding a 30 second advantage over the bunch.

The gap had closed to 20 seconds with CCC chasing as Dunbar continued to drive the leading group towards the finish line in Leeds.

Greg Van Avermaet attacked the bunch with just over 5km to go, with Lawless straight onto his wheel and Froome also trying to get over. Dunbar had dropped the rest of the leading group as Van Avermaet and Lawless quickly caught up to him.

The leading group of three were being chased down by a group containing Alexander Kamp, with the race fracturing behind.

Dunbar pushed on for Lawless, with Van Avermaet biding his time sitting in the wheel as the Kamp group started coming up behind.

With a kilometre to go, Dunbar held the chase group at bay as Greg Van Avermaet led out the sprint with Lawless in his wheel, the Olympic champion taking the stage win and Lawless winning the overall classification.

Results

Tour de Yorkshire 2019 stage four: Halifax to Leeds (175km)

1.  Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) CCC Team, in 4-40-03

2. Chris Lawless (GBr) Team Ineos, at same time

3. Eddie Dunbar (Ire) Team Ineos, at 2 seconds

4. Tom-Jelte Slagter (Ned) Dimension Data, at 9s

5. Jams Shaw (GBr) SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling

6. Matthew Holmes (GBr) Madison Genesis

7. Alexander Kamp (Den) Riwal Readynez, all at same time

8. Gabriel Cullaigh (GBr) Team Wiggins, at 12s

9. Jenthe Biermans (Bel) Katusha-Alpecin

10. Scott Thwaites (GBr) Vitus Pro Cycling, all at same time

General classification after stage four:

1. Chris Lawless (GBr) Team Ineos, in 15-18-12

2. Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) CCC, at 2 seconds

3. Eddie Dunbar (Ire) Team Ineos, at 11s

4. Alexander Kamp (Den) Riwal Readynez, at 15s

5. James Shaw (GBr) SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling, at 25s

6. Matthew Holmes (GBr) Madison Genesis

7. Tom-Jelte Slagter (Ned) Dimension Data, all at same time

8. Scott Thwaites (GBr) Vitus Pro Cycling, at 28s

9. Connor Swift (GBr) Madison Genesis

10. Nick van der Lijke (Ned) Roompot-Charles, all at same time

Owain Doull says defending champion Greg Van Avermaet (CCC Team) has to be the favourite for the Tour de Yorkshire overall title on Sunday's final stage, despite Team Ineos having five riders close enough on general classification to win the race.

Chris Lawless leads the overall after finishing second on the crosswind affected stage three, which saw his team Ineos split the race to pieces with around 50km to go. They initially placed six riders in the lead group, with five making it to the finish and four, Chris Froome, Michał Golas, Eddie Dunbar and Doull, now all sitting 10 seconds behind Lawless in the overall.

Greg Van Avermaet, who finished third on the stage, sits just six seconds off the overall lead thanks to a four-second time bonus on the line with stage winner Alexander Kamp (Riwal Readynez) on the same time as Lawless in second place.

Doull however says Van Avermaet has to be favourite on the tough 175km stage four from Halifax to Leeds , which takes in five categorised climbs, adding that Ineos even held back on Saturday to prepare for the final test.

"Van Avermaet has got to be the favourite tomorrow, the Riwal guys are also pretty strong, but it’s going to be between those lot," Doull told Cycling Weekly at the finish in Scarborough.

"There’s a tinge of disappointment missing [the stage win] I think, to have five guys in a group of 21, you should probably win. But also in the backs of our minds we didn’t want to go burning guys off hitting it up, because tomorrow’s the big GC day. Now we’re in a super-strong position with five guys [close to] the leading time.

"The wind was up today and the weather was pretty grim, we knew it was going to be a hard day and we kind of took the initiative we decided to take it on in the crosswinds at about 60km to go I think, we had numbers in the front - we lost Yogi but he’d done a lot and then we just wanted to keep it together and get a win with Chris I think, but unfortunately he was second."

While Doull was disappointed his team-mate missing out on the stage, Lawless said he was "gutted" to narrowly finish second on the line, missing out on what could have been Ineos' maiden win since the team's sponsor change.

The 23-year-old took third in the sprint on stage two on Friday and came up short again after saying he slightly mistimed his final sprint, also playing down his chances of holding on to the overall lead on the final stage.

"I’m a bit gutted about not winning the stage, but with a new team sponsor it’s always nice to be leading the race," Lawless said. "The main focus today was keeping Doull, Froomey and Eddie in GC contention. Me taking the race lead is a bit of a bonus and second on the stage, but in my mind I was really looking for first.

"There are a couple of things that I could have done differently in the sprint. I should have maybe laid off Doull’s wheel a bit more so that I could rush the gap and carry my speed.

"We didn’t realise how much of a tail-cross (wind) it was and how quick the sprint was going to be. I thought it was going to be more of a direct crosswind. Kamp took advantage of that and pretty much timed his sprint perfectly.

"My climbing has improved this year but I think tomorrow might be a bit far of a stretch. We’ll see as I seem to be going alright."

Elynor Bäckstedt finished the Tour de Yorkshire in a very respectable 35th place. The two day HC stage race was her first senior event and she completed it on junior gears. Coming off the back of a successful spring campaign having won two Nations Cup races, she took the step up in her stride.

“I just want to try and get round in the best shape possible,” she said ahead of the final stage to Scarborough that blew the race to pieces and saw just 78 riders finish the race.

>>> ‘I was just so empty’: Lizzie Deignan left ‘physically on the limit’ in punishing Tour de Yorkshire finale

On the first stage to Bedale she finished in 20th place in the bunch sprint, despite the gearing handicap. “I was spinning out from about six kilometres to go. I’m on a 14 up cassette and they’re all on 11s.”

“It’s weird. I felt comfortable in the bunch, but the top end, like the hills, it’s all very different to junior racing,” she explained. “This is nice and calm, because you have time, whereas junior races are 70km flat out and very twitchy in the bunch. This is my only senior race, and definitely the biggest and longest race I’ve ever done.”

Bäckstedt finished stage two in a big group almost seven minutes down on winner Marianne Vos and was barely able to swing her leg over her bike after the finish line. She was however Storey Racing’s only finisher after her team-mates abandoned on the way in to Scarborough.

Having missed the first half of the 2018 season due to glandular fever, Bäckstedt, daughter of Paris-Roubaix winner Magnus, has enjoyed an impressive 2019.

She won Ghent-Wevelgem in March and the Omloop van Borsele stage race - including two of the three stages - in April. She was second at the Healthy Ageing Tour and 16th at Binda. It’s these results that have put Great Britain at the top of the UCI’s nation ranking ahead of the Netherlands and the USA.

With the final nations cup race not until mid September attention will now turn to the track and the European track championships in Ghent this July. Bäckstedt is focusing on the team pursuit and the Madison with an eye on the other endurance events. Selection for the Worlds in Yorkshire is always on the horizon.

“Hopefully I’ll be there, but you never know what’s going happen," she said. "I’ve brought my time trial bike up with me so I can go and look at the course.”

In the meantime it’s back to south Wales and training with her family. Her mother Megan was national road race champion in 1998 and competed on the track for Great Britain, while her younger sister Zoe is already enjoying success in the youth ranks. “Since I’ve become junior they’ve taken a step back, especially with coaching,” she said of her parents.

“They both give as much info as they can and sometimes come out training with me. Dad is often a motorpacer - not on a motorbike, just on his bike. He teaches me stuff from the men’s peloton that helps me be a more aggressive rider.”

Alexander Kamp (Riwal Readynez) won the sprint finish from a reduced bunch on stage three of the Tour de Yorkshire 2019, as Chris Lawless (Team Ineos) took the lead in the overall classification.

The Dane beat Lawless on the line, with the Brit the banging his handlebars in frustration after being led out by Team Ineos, who controlled the race over the final section to set things up for the Lancastrian to take the win in Yorkshire. Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet (CCC) finished in third place.

Lawless and Kamp are now tied in the overall classification, with Lawless stepping on to the podium to claim the blue jersey in Scarborough, which he will wear on Sunday's final stage four. The young sprinter said in a post-race interview that he does not expect to keep it tomorrow, which features another day of punchy climbing.

The race split apart on the Lythe Bank climb 50km out, with a select group boasting Chris Froome (Team Ineos) and Greg Van Avermaet (CCC) amongst a number of strong WorldTour riders. After a few nervy kilometres ticked by, the select bunch decided with 20km remaining to settle for a sprint finish to decide the winner.

In the women's race, Marianne Vos returned to winning ways, winning from a group of three to take the stage and the overall victory.

How it happened

Stage two’s 132km course from Bridlington to Scarborough featured five categorised climbs interspersed throughout, with two sprint points at Harwood Dale and Whitby Abbey.

As was the case in the women's race, windy weather played a factor throughout, with race staff brought in to stop the inflatable start line blowing away as the peloton rolled out from Bridlington.

The day's break were allowed to go after around 30km of racing, gaining a gap of 1-40, with the group of eight consisting of: Michael Cuming (Madison Genesis), Kévin Reza (Vital Concept - B&B Hotels), Rob Scott (Wiggins-Le Col), Romain Sicard (Total Direct Energie), Maikel Zijlaard (Hagens Berman Axeon), John Archibald (Ribble), Michael Mottram (Vitus Pro Cycling), Stephen Bradbury (SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling) and Robin Carpenter (Rally UHC).

After taking the Silpho climb and drawing level with Jacob Hennessy (Canyon dhb) in the king of the mountains competition, Rob Scott also attacked up the Hooks House Farm climb as John Archibald (Ribble) chased in pursuit, but Scott held out to take the KOM lead.

As the waves crashed onto the road whilst the peloton made their way to Lythe Bank, Team Ineos and CCC began to push on in the peloton. Scott took yet another summit win at Lythe Bank, but then the breakaway were reeled in as they faltered in the cross winds. The peloton also imploded due to the big teams' efforts on the front, with a selection breaking clear at 51km to go.

As the peloton started the climb to Ugglebarnby, Greg Van Avermaet appeared near the front, as well as a large number of Riwal Readynez who also had a strong presence, but the pace was too much for race leader Asselman, who was dropped as the group began to thin.

Crosswinds came in after the summit of Ugglebarnby as Team Ineos took charge of the now heavily reduced bunch, still boasting the majority of their squad including sprinter Chris Lawless who had survived all the climbs of the day.

After a restless few kilometres, where the leading group briefly split due to an attack from Owain Doull (Team Ineos), the race calmed down for the final 17km, as the riders settled for a bunch sprint in Scarborough to decide the victor.

Team Ineos led into the Victorian seaside resort, hoping to set up Lawless for the win, with CCC and Team Ineos trying to put each other on the front to lead out in the headwind on the cobbled, coastal road into the finish.

Greg Van Avermaet was in second wheel around the bend as the group entered the barriers, as a wave crashed onto the road nearly reaching the riders.

Owain Duoll then made his move, leading out Chris Lawless as the sprint opened up, Greg Van Avermaet challenged but it was Riwal Readynez's Alexander Kamp who beat him to the line, with Lawless frustrated as he crossed in second place

Tomorrow's fourth and final stage from Halifax to Leeds features five categorised climbs in what will be a well fought battle for the GC, with a number of riders still in contention.

Results

Tour de Yorkshire 2019 stage three: Bridlington to Scarborough (132km)

1. Alexander Kamp (Den) Riwal Readynez, in 3-23-24

2. Chris Lawless (GBr) Team Ineos

3. Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) CCC

4. Rasmus Tiller (Nor) Dimension Data

5. Scott Thwaites (GBr) Vitus Pro Cycling

6. Owain Doull (GBr) Team Ineos

7. Matthew Holmes (GBr) Madison Genesis

8. Andreas Stokbro (Den) Riwal Readynez

9. Nick van der Lijke (Ned) Roompot-Charles

10. Jenthe Biermans (Bel) Katusha-Alpecin, all at same time

General classification after stage three:

1.Chris Lawless (GBr) Team Ineos, in 10-38-15

2.Alexander Kamp (Den) Riwal Readynez, at same time

3. Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) CCC, at 6 seconds

4.Andreas Stokbro (Den) Riwal Readynez, at 10s

5. Scott Thwaites (GBr) Vitus Pro Cycling

6. Connor Swift (GBr) Madison Genesis

7. Nick van der Lijke (Ned) Roompot-Charles

8. Owain Doull (GBr) Team Ineos

9. Eddie Dunar (Ire) Team Ineos

10. Jenthe Biermans (Bel) Katusha-Alpecin, all at same time

Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) said she was "empty" and "physically on the limit" during a gruelling second stage of the 2019 Tour de Yorkshire.

The former world champion was active during the most difficult section of the stage from Bridlington to Scarborough, attempting to follow the solo move of Anna van der Breggen (Boels-Dolmans) as the race entered the climbs of the North York Moors with around 75km to go.

Battered by intermittent rain and hail along with constant strong winds, Deignan said she spent all her energy trying to track the current world champion, and was unable to follow moves and was dropped not long after when a smalle group came back together and other riders began to attack.

Marianne Vos (CCC-Liv) was eventually able to take the stage and overall win after bridging to lone leader Mavi Garcia (Movistar) with Soraya Paladin (Alé-Cipollini) before beating them both in a three-up sprint along the coast.

"I probably wasn’t in the best tactical moves today but I was just on the limit physically. I wasn’t making the most intelligent decisions but I had a good race," Deignan said, shivering at the finish.

"I was just so empty at that point [50km to go]. I can take away from it that I was there when I needed to be on the climbs but just was completely blocked in the crosswinds, I’d kind of burnt my matches I think trying to follow Anna in the beginning. It’s just one of those things.

"I’ve been struggling a bit with my appetite, and trying to get enough calories in has been a bit of a problem the last couple of days and I paid for that today."

The 30-year-old, who only returned to racing at Amstel Gold Race two weeks ago after giving birth to her daughter, is still attempting to find her form again ahead of a home World Championships in Yorkshire in September.

Despite eventually finishing in 28th place on Saturday at 3-54 down and 29th overall, Deignan says that she can take encouragement going forward from her strength on the climbs against some of the Worlds best riders. She's next scheduled to race in just under two-weeks' time at the three-stage Tour of California.

"My progression’s been really good and I'm really happy with the team and my personal progress," Deignan said.

"[My legs] were good and then bad and then good. I went through all kinds of emotions. But I think the main point for me was that at the pinch points there on the climbs when it really mattered I was able to follow the best in the world, so I know I’ve still got a lot of improvement to make but I’m happy with my progress.”

Marianne Vos (CCC-Liv) won a windy stage two of the Tour de Yorkshire Women's Race to also take the overall classification.

The Dutchwoman rode to the line with Mavi Garcia (Movistar), who had tried to go solo earlier in the race, and Soraya Paladin (Alé Cipollini) before jumping ahead in the final hundred metres to claim victory.

The day was partly defined by the blustery conditions, with the waves crashing against the Yorkshire coastline as the peloton made their way up from Bridlington to Scarborough, but also by the flurry of attacks throughout.

Anna van der Breggen (Boels-Dolmans) had tried her hand, as did Mavi Garcia, but eventually the race came down to the leading group of three trying to stay away from a chasing trio of Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton-Scott), Christine Majerus (Boels-Dolmans) and Hannah Barnes (Canyon-SRAM) who tried but ultimately failed to hunt them down in the run-in to Scarborough.

Garcia finished second with Paladin in third, which was also their respective positions on GC, both within ten seconds of Vos in the overall classification.

Lizzie Deignan (Trek Segafredo), having spent the early part of her race chasing down Van der Breggen, admitted after the race that she may have got her tactics wrong on the day. Following Paladin's wheel on the Lythe Bank climb, the Italian rode up to the main group but Deignan didn't keep it, opting to stay in a group with Van der Breggen and a number of other strong riders.

How it happened

Stage two's 132km course from Bridlington to Scarborough featured five categorised climbs interspersed throughout, with two sprint points at Harwood Dale and Whitby Abbey.

The day would be defined by high winds and inclement weather, with Canyon-SRAM's Alice Barnes igniting the race as she attacked from the off and mini echelons formed quickly throughout the pack.

After Barnes was pulled back in, Anna van der Breggen attacked on the descent into Robin Hood's Bay, racing up the climb of Hooks House Farm, with Lizzie Deignan going off in pursuit.

Soon after, Deignan was brought back in to a reduced peloton as they passed through the Whitby Abbey sprint point, trailing Van der Breggen by 35 seconds, until they eventually caught her with 58km remaining.

At the 50km to go mark, Anna van der Breggen still kept the pace on as the riders ascended Lythe Bank, a 1.2km climb with an average gradient of 10 per cent. Led by the world champion, a group of nine riders began to go clear, with Mavi Garcia launching an attack off the front.

On the Côte de Grosmont, the penultimate and wall-like climb which was only 0.5km in length but had an average gradient of 15 per cent, Garcia had an advantage of 30 seconds over a chase group that had swelled to around twenty of the day's favourites.

This group then began to split again, thanks to the effort of Marianne Vos and Annemiek Van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott), with Van der Breggen and Deignan finding themselves on the wrong end of the split after the Brit had failed to pick up the wheel of Paladin as the Italian rode across the gap.

On the final Ugglebarnby climb Garcia was still going strong, maintaining a 20 second gap, as the chase group behind went through a big re-organisation as Amy Pieters (Boels-Dolmans) and Lizzie Banks (Bigla) were dropped and Christine Majerus and Amanda Spratt began to lose touch with Soraya Paladin and Vos, the pair ploughing on.

Garcia crested the Uggblebarnby to take the lead in the Queen of the Mountains competition off Deignan, with Vos and Paladin making the catch soon after to form a leading group of three as they hit a tailwind on the run-in to Scarborough. Majerus, Spratt and Hannah Barnes formed the second group on the road, 14 seconds behind in gusty conditions.

Vos then attacked with 27km to go, as the chase group began to close in, opening up a big gap over Garcia and Paladin, before Paladin brought her back in within the next couple of kilometres.

The race turned into a pursuit between the two groups on the road, with Vos' leading group gradually opening up their advantage as Majerus towed the chase group in pursuit of her ambitions in overall classification, starting the day in second place and five seconds ahead of Vos.

The sun finally came out as the riders approached Scarborough, with Amanda Spratt launching a last gasp attempt with 4km to go as she tried but failed to get across to the leading group.

With one kilometre to go, the front three started to slow as the game of cat and mouse ensued. The pace slowed further as they hit a headwind as the sea, which had raged all day, crashed against the rocks at the side of the cobbled road.

Garcia attacked first in the finishing straight, with Vos staying in her wheel and coming round her with metres to spare before the line to take the stage win.

Results

Tour de Yorkshire Women’s Race 2019 stage two: Bridlington to Scarborough (132km)

1. Marianne Vos (Ned) CCC-Liv, in 3-59-16

2. Mavi Garcia (Esp) Movistar

3. Soraya Paladin (Ita) Alé Cipollini, all at same time

4. Christine Majerus (Lux) Boels-Dolmans, at 1-22

5. Amanda Spratt (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott, at same time

6. Lisa Brennauer (Ger) WNT-Rotor, at 1-37

7. Alice Maria Arzuffi (Ita) Valcar Cylance, at 2-01

8. Hannah Barnes (Gbr) Canyon-SRAM, at 2-06

9. Lizzie Banks (Gbr) Bigla, at 2-26

10. Liane Lippert (Ger) Team Sunweb, at 2-39

General classification after stage two

1. Marianne Vos (Ned) CCC-Liv, in 7-34-27

2. Mavi Garcia (Esp) Movistar, at 7 seconds

3. Soraya Paladin (Ita) Alé Cipollini, at 9s

4. Christine Majerus (Lux) Boels-Dolmans, at 1-28

5. Amanda Spratt (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott, at 1-35

6. Lisa Brennauer (Ger) WNT-Rotor, at 1-50

7. Alice Maria Arzuffi (Ita) Valcar Cylance, at 2-14

8. Hannah Barnes (Gbr) Canyon-SRAM, at 2-19

9. Lizzie Banks (Gbr) Bigla, at 2-36

10. Liane Lippert (Ger) Team Sunweb, at 2-50

Rick Zabel (Katusha-Alpecin) came from a long way back to win the sprint finish on stage two of the 2019 Tour de Yorkshire.

Boy van Poppel (Roompot-Charles) finished second and a trio of Brits closed out the top five, with Chris Lawless (Team Ineos), Andrew Tennant (Canyon dhb) and Daniel McLay (Great Britain).

Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) was brought to the front on the finishing straight, sitting in sixth wheel, but appeared to not have the legs to compete the sprint finish.

The overall classification remains a tightly contested affair. Stage one winner Jesper Asselman retains the leader's jersey but with only a one second lead over Rick Zabel. Boy van Poppel sits third, five seconds down and on the same time as Filippo Fortin (Cofidis) and Jacob Hennessy (Canyon dhb).

How it happened

The 132km course from Barnsley to Bedale featured one climb at Côte de Lindley (1.5km in length at an average gradient of 7.4 per cent) as well as two intermediate sprint points, the first coming after 20km at Pontefract and the second at Harrogate with around 50km of racing remaining.

The day's break got away early, formed of four riders: Chris McGlinchey (Vitus Pro Cycling), Tom Stewart (Canyon dhb), Jake Scott (SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling) and Fabien Grellier (Total Direct Energie).

Tom Stewart took the first intermediate sprint of the day, edging out Jake Scott, with two more riders joining the breakaway 15km later, the Wiggins-Le Col pair of James Fouché and Robert Scott.

>>> David Gaudu beats world-class climbers to victory on stage three of Tour de Romandie 2019

The breakaway were kept in check during the first half of the race, rarely being allowed a gap of more than two minutes after the heroics on stage one of Jesper Asselman (Roompot-Charles).

The men enjoyed drier roads on the way to the start of the climb to Lindley than the women had experienced earlier, with New Zealand road race champion James Fouché attacking the break with a couple of kilometres before they were due to start the climb.

With the breakaway briefly splintering behind, Fouché picked up the four points on offer at the top, drawing level with Jacob Hennessy (Canyon-dhb) in the king of the mountains classification.

By the second intermediate sprint in Harrogate, the breakaway had come back together as a group of six riders. Huge crowds lined the road, this time for a bike race and not just Betty's Tea Rooms, as Jake Scott put in a powerful attack to claim maximum points. The Brit may have been slightly disappointed, however, that he wasn't crossing over in first place six months in the future when the line is due to be resurrected for the finish of the world road race championships.

Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) came to the front as the peloton as they passed through Harrogate, paying respect to both the town where his mother lives and the scene of his crash on stage one of the 2014 Tour de France.

The peloton were happy to leave the breakaway hanging, holding them at a gap rarely over 40 seconds in the final 50km. Eventually, McGlinchey and Stewart could sense the break was about to be caught, going clear with just over 15km to go as the other four looked behind as the peloton swept them up.

As the catch was about to be made, a small group of riders launched out of the peloton, with Pierre Rolland (Vital Concept-B&B Hotels), Pete Williams (SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling), and Paul Ourselin (Total Direct Energie) joining the remaining breakaway pair with 9km left to race.

This new leading group of five riders stayed away for another 5km before the race finally all came back together with 4km of road remaining as the inclement weather returned and rain fell on the peloton.

Ian Stannard came to the fore on wet roads for Team Ineos at 2.5km to go, with Bernie Eisel (Dimension Data) trying to pilot Mark Cavendish as the Great Britain team also appeared at the front.

The big hitters were all there in the finishing straight, with Cavendish sitting in sixth wheel on the run-in. Daniel McLay contested bravely as Cavendish fell away, butRick Zabel came from far back and won the stage with a perfectly timed sprint amidst a chaotic finish.

Stage three is a 135km route from Bridlington to Scarborough, featuring five climbs of which two have an average gradient of 10 per cent and 15 per cent, where we may well see a shake-up in the overall classification.

Results

Tour de Yorkshire 2019 stage two: Barnsley to Bedale (132km)

1. Rick Zabel (Ger) Katusha Alpecin, in 3-09-16

2. Boy van Poppel (Ned) Roompot-Charles

3. Chris Lawless (Gbr) Team Ineos

4. Andrew Tennant (Gbr) Canyon dhb

5. Daniel McLay (Gbr) Great Britain

6. Andreas Nielsen (Den) Riwal Readynez

7. Jonas Van Genechten (Bel) Vital Concept-B&B Hotels

8. Michael Rice (Aus) Hagens Berman Axeon

9. Cyril Barthe (Fra) Euskadi Basque Country - Murias

10. Connor Swift (Gbr) Madison Genesis, all at same time

General classification after stage two:

1. Jesper Asselman (Ned) Roompot-Charles, in 7-14-50

2. Rick Zabel (Ger) Katusha Alpecin, at 1 second

3. Boy van Poppel (Ned) Roompot-Charles, at 5s

4. Filippo Fortin (Ita) Cofidis

5. Jacob Hennessy (Gbr) Canyon dhb, all at same time

Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) says she's finding it 'boring' that she can't yet attack as she has done in the past.

The former world champion only made her return to racing two weeks ago at the Amstel Gold Race, having taken an extended break to give birth to her daughter, Orla. Deignan races through the Ardennes Classics last week, with her best result coming at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, where she finished in seventh place.

This week she's racing at the two-stage Tour de Yorkshire, her home race, and her first stage race with new team Trek-Segafredo.

The 30-year-old put in a number of shifts on the front of the bunch during the cold and rainy conditions of stage one from Barnsley to Bedale, which was eventually won in a sprint finish by Dutchwoman Lorena Wiebes (Parkhotel Valkenberg).

But Deignan says she struggled in the difficult conditions of Friday's stage and that she's still working towards the kind of condition that helped her become world champion in 2015.

"It was very cold, kind of miserable for a long time but there were hundreds of people out on the roads and it was a great atmosphere," Deignan said at the finish in Bedale.

"To be honest I was just trying to stay warm, obviously normally in a race you’re trying to save as much energy as you possibly can but today there were points where you just had to ride on the front to stay warm and then towards the end we didn’t have our sprint, she’s unfortunately been poorly this morning, so we kind of just did what we could and we all got through safely.

"The head [is] definitely [feeling like it used to] - I’m still so eager to get going and I’m finding it boring that I can’t attack like I used to. That’ll come back; a couple of races down the line and I’m sure that’ll come back.

"I struggled today, I felt better in Liège last week, hopefully tomorrow I’ll come round. At the moment for me it’s all about getting those races in and that race rhythm."

Stage one of the women's Tour de Yorkshire also gave riders a glimpse at the 20km finishing circuit of the World Championships road race in September, which finishes with an uphill drag on Parliament Street in Harrogate; the same finish used in the opening stage of the 2014 Tour de France.

Deignan, who grew up in nearby Otley, explained after racing the Worlds finish for the first time that she'd been approaching the final corners of the circuit wrong in reconnaissance rides in training.

"It was really good [to see the World Champs course], and to be honest I’ve been doing it wrong in training. So I’m glad I actually saw the proper course, it was good," Deignan said.

"Just the final couple of corners [I was getting wrong]. I’ve just been coming at it from a different angle, god knows how. The main points of the circuit I’ve been doing properly but it’s a tough circuit, I like it."

Deignan also added that the finals descent and climb out of Oak Beck on Penny Pot Lane, around 5km from Worlds finish line, will be an important point positionally in a 150km race that could come down to a sprint finish. She said anyone out of position at that point would be "in trouble" ahead of the final roads towards the finish.

Lorena Wiebes unleashed a perfectly-timed sprint to take stage one of the Tour de Yorkshire Women's Race.

The opening stage, which followed the exact route of stage two of the men's race, gave riders the opportunity to view the Yorkshire World Championship finishing circuit before the finish.

But it was a sprint in the market town of Bedale that decided the winner, with Wiebes (Parkhotel Valkenburg) following the wheel of Christine Majerus (Boels-Dolmans), who opened up too early.

Dutch rider Wiebes powered past Majerus to take victory, with Majerus finishing second, and third going to Alison Jackson (Tibco-SVB).

How it happened

The 2019 edition of the Tour de Yorkshire Women's Race followed an identical route to the men's race for the first time.

Stage one was a 132km run from Barnsley in South Yorkshire to Bedale in the north, likely to end in a sprint with only two short climbs mid-way through.

The first notable ascent of the race came 70km into the day - the Côte de Lindley, 1.1km long at 7.5 per cent, but with a long way to the line the climb was unlikely to affect the outcome.

>>> Jesper Asselman wins from breakaway in nail-biting stage one of Tour de Yorkshire 2019 

A second climb followed 10km later, 1km at 5.8 per cent, but was still not expected to split the race up.

The peloton then rode on to Harrogate, where riders had the chance to tackle the exact same circuit being used in the World Championship road race in Yorkshire later this year.

After riding north towards Ripon, the race took the long-flat approach to the finish town Bedale where a sprint was expected.

The first move of the day came late, as Bigla's Elizabeth Banks put in a huge solo effort to break free of the peloton inside 100km.

Banks pulled out a 35 second advantage alone, before Leah Dixon (Brother UK-Tifosi) bridged across to join her, both riders then working well together to pull out a two-minute advantage over the bunch.

A chasing group then went clear from the peloton in an attempt to bridge across to the escapees, consisting of Lauren Kitchen (FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope), Maria Confalonieri (Valcar Cylance Cycling), Ingrid Lorvik (Hitec Products) and Kelly Murphy (Storey Racing).

Banks proved herself the strongest out front as she dropped Dixon on the Côte de Lindley to take the Queen of the Mountain points, but then waited for her breakaway companion.

>>> Mixed feelings for Dan Bigham after brutal day in the breakaway on Tour de Yorkshire stage one

The chasing group then caught Banks and Dixon to make a six-rider breakaway inside 60km, as the race approached the World Championship circuit in Harrogate.

As the race came within 30km of the finish, the escapees held a two minute advantage over the bunch but a flurry of attacks upped the pace behind.

Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) put in a major pull on the front, before her team-mate Taylor Wiles launched an attack.

Trek continued to assert their authority with attacks from Audrey Cordon-Ragot and Ruth Winder following.

No moves from the peloton stuck over the next 5km, but the activity slashed the gap to the breakaway down to 50 seconds, which held as the breakaway entered the final 20km.

At the 10km mark the bunch pulled the front six in view and the chase immediately slowed, with the peloton trying to avoid making the catch too early and encouraging solo moves.

But the break continued to press hard and held a 30-second advantage at 7km, with a sudden panic resulting in a surge of pace behind.

At 5km the gap rapidly began to fall and the day's escapees were finally caught 3km from the line to set up a rapid run Bedale.

Trek-Segafredo drove the pace on the front of the peloton with Canyon-SRAM then taking up control and leading into the final kilometre.

Boels-Dolmans then hit the wind inside the hoardings as their sprinter Christine Majerus opened her sprint first, but she was passed by Lorena Wiebes at the 150 metre mark.

Wiebes powered clear to take victory, with Majerus finishing second and Jackson taking third.

Results

Tour de Yorkshire Women's Race 2019 stage one: Barnsley to Bedale (132km)

1. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg, in 3-35-24

2. Christine Majerus (Lux) Boels-Dolmans

3. Alison Jackson (Can) Tibco-SVB

4. Roxane Fournier (Fra) Movistar

5. Lisa Brennauer (Ger) WNT-Rotor

6. Susanne Andersen (Nor) Sunweb

7. Elisa Balsamo (Ita) Valcar Cyclance

8. Anna Henderson Brother UK-Tifosi

9. Emilia Fahlin (Swe) FDJ Nouvelle Aquitane Futuroscope

10. Demi Vollering (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg, all at same time

General classification after stage one

1. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg, in 3-35,14

2. Christine Majerus (Lux) Boels-Dolmans, at 3 seconds

3. Alison Jackson (Can) Tibco-SVB, at 6s

4. Susanne Andersen (Nor) Sunweb, at 7s

5. Lauren Kitchen (Aus) FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope, at same time

6. Marianne Vos (Ned) CCC-Liv, at 8s

7. Maria Confalonieri (Ita) Valcar Cyclance, at same time

8. Ingrid Lorvik (Nor) Hitec Products, at 9s

9. Roxane Fournier (Fra) Movistar, at 10s

10. Lisa Brennauer (Ger) WNT-Rotor, at same time

Ribble Pro Cycling’s Dan Bigham had the dream start to his UCI stage racing career, winning the most active rider jersey after being in the day-long break on stage one of the Tour de Yorkshire.

It wasn’t quite perfect —Bigham had to settle for 14th place as the bunch swept up all but stage winner Jesper Asselman (Roompot-Charles) in the dying metres of the 182km stage, which ran from Doncaster to Selby.

Racing at this level is a new ball game for the first-year UCI team Ribble, but they made good on their intentions to make the most of the first two relatively flat days of this race.

“First-year Conti team and we’re on the podium our very first UCI race of the year, it’s wicked,” enthused Derby-based Bigham, best known for his exploits on track with Huub-Wattbike, after the stage.

“It’s cool to be in the jersey and obviously I can’t be disappointed with that, it’s sweet I guess. It’s just a bit frustrating not to feature — I just didn’t have the legs to sprint at the back end,” he said.

Bigham also went for the red KoM jersey on the only classified climb of the day, and while he was soundly beaten by Jacob Hennessy (Canyon-dhb p/b Bloor Homes), he realised at that point that the break could go all the way.

“I wanted that KoM so bad — I know I’m not a climber, but I genuinely thought I had more than that,” Bigham said.

“Over the top of the last climb we had 2-20, 2-40 which is awesome, then [team boss] Matt [Cronshaw] pulled up and was ‘the gap’s not coming down’ so I was like, right let’s keep riding and just keep lifting it. I was feeling mint in the last hour, doing 400-plus watt turns.”

Bigham puts much of his clearly excellent road form down to finding equilibrium both on and off the bike.

“I got out in Calpe, had a great 10-day block and since then just been super consistent, life’s been good,” he said.

“Good balance around work, family and girlfriend and all that kind of stuff which is great, so it means I’m happy, sessions are being completed, so that’s what matters really for these races.”

And, despite such an epic day, Bigham is more than up for having another go tomorrow: “Damn sure I will,” he grinned. “There’s nothing else for me on the agenda… put myself in the breakaway and see what the legs say.”

British Cycling’s young team of riders took stage one of the Tour de Yorkshire by the scruff of the neck, placing two riders in the break that produced the days winner. Although the British team, the only national squad in the race, came away empty handed, coach Ben Greenwood was pleased with their performance.

“The aim was to ride for Ethan [Hayter] in the sprint and put a rider in the break.” Greenwood said. “Joe [Nally] has been saying for a few weeks he wanted to get in the break, but we didn’t expect two! After last year we were talking about the break sticking [today]. There’s only four WorldTour teams and we couldn’t see many sprinter teams who had an interest in bringing it back.”

“With 20km to go I told Jo it’s on. It was wet, the bunch was cold and you could see no one fancied it.”

>>>>Jesper Asselman wins from breakaway in nail-biting finish

While Jesper Asselman of Roompot opened his sprint early to gain a few metres and just hold off the rapidly closing bunch to win, Nally was swamped in the dying metres to finish 12th. His team-mate Sean Flynn had ‘blown’ at around 130km and would eventually finish over 10 minutes behind.

“Sean is a first year [senior] mountain biker,” Greenwood explained. “Until he did a race for us a few weeks ago he’d not ridden over 130km. For him this is a long way. He hit that mark today and blew his doors off.”

“We’ve got four riders doing this level of race for the first tie. Charley [Calvert] is a first year senior, as is Sean. Will is a first year senior and Ben Turner is a second year cross rider doing his first road race of the season. For them it’s a big step up.”

“Today was their best chance to get in the break. Stage three being so short will be a hard break to get in to, and the last day it will be a really strong break of strong riders. And they’ll get more tired than the WorldTour riders as the race goes on. We’re not doing it for sponsors like the Pro Conti teams just for them to show their name and faces. We’ll try again tomorrow.”

Coaches Greenwood and Matt Brammeier brought a young team to Yorkshire with their strongest riders currently racing on the continent. “A team raced in Germany yesterday in the U23 race in Frankfurt, and we’ve got an U23 Nations Cup in France on Saturday.

“The Nations Cups are the way we qualify for the world champs and being in Harrogate this year we want a full team. We got fourth in Ghent-Wevelgem, third in Flanders with Jake Stewart so we’ve got good points already but we want six riders.”

>>>>Ineos protesters voice their anger at opening stage of Tour de Yorkshire

Best placed on the day was Ethan Hayter, although the team pursuit rider was in trouble earlier in the race.

“We came round a corner and Ethan was on the floor," added Greenwood.

"There was no mention on the radio. He said, ‘my bikes’ broken, my shifters are broken, and my cleats moved.’ Matt [Brammeier] was up the road with all the spare bikes on the roof so Ethan had to start riding with one foot clipped in. We stayed with him until we found Matt by which time we were a long way back.”

Hayter battled his way back to the bunch to finish sixth on the stage, two places ahead of Mark Cavendish in the sprint.

Jesper Asselman took a surprise victory from a breakaway on stage one of the Tour de Yorkshire 2019.

The Roompot-Charles rider made it into the seven-rider move at the start of the day and held his own deep into the race.

Asselman was the first to launch his attack from the four breakaway riders left in the final, as the peloton caught up but was forced to fight for minor places.

Filippo Fortin (Cofidis, Solutions Crédits) took second with Jonas Van Genechten (Vital Concept-B&B Hotels) finishing third.

How it happened

The opening stage of the 2019 Tour de Yorkshire looked liked a nailed on stage for the sprinters, over 182.5km from the town of Doncaster to Selby.

With just one climb along the route - the Côte de Baggaby Hill, 1.8km at 3.9 per cent - which came 136km into the day, it looked like terrain for the fast men like Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data), Dan McLay (Great Britain) and Chris Lawless (Team Ineos).

Typically unpredictable Yorkshire weather characterised the opening half of racing, with sunshine and showers pouring down on the peloton.

>>> Stefan Küng denies sprinters with solo attack to win stage two of Tour de Romandie 2019 

A seven-rider breakaway formed 30km into the race with Dan Bigham (Ribble Pro Cycling), Kevin Vermaerke (Hagens Berman Axeon), Jacob Hennessy (Canyon-dhb), Jesper Asselman (Roompot-Charles), Sean Flynn and Joe Nally (Great Britain) all breaking free.

The break were allowed a 1-40 gap at 50km into the race, with the peloton keeping a tight leash on the frontrunners.

Dimension Data and Team Ineos, debuting their new colours after the official launch, manned the front of the bunch to keep the escapees within their grasp.

The breakaway combined brilliantly throughout the day, until Hennessy and Flynn were dropped and rejoined the peloton 36km from home.

Bigham, Asselman, Vermaerke and Nally continued their efforts and held a 1-50 advantage over the bunch.

Disaster then struck reigning Tour de Yorkshire champion Greg Van Avermaet (CCC Team), as he punctured with just over 20km race and was forced to chase the tail of the peloton.

But the Belgian was able to rejoin after four kilometres of chasing to keep him in the fight.

Ian Stannard (Team Ineos) drove the pace at the front of the bunch, as the gap to the four out front dropped to 1-12 with 16km to race.

As the breakaway hit the 10km marker they held a 30 second advantage and continued pushing hard to stay away.

The peloton's progress began to slow as the race hit the 3km marker, with the escapees still holding 20 seconds as Dimension Data took over the chase from Ineos.

>>> Protesters voice their anger over Ineos sponsorship at Tour de Yorkshire

Inside the final kilometre the bunch still hadn't made the catch, as CCC Team sent a rider across to try and catch the front of the race.

Asselman launched his sprint from the breakaway 200 metres from the line and immediately pulled out a gap from his exhausted companions, who were caught by the bunch.

But peloton had struck out too late as Asselman rode to victory, despite catching a Yorkshire flag on his handlebars while sprinting.

Results

Tour de Yorkshire 2019 stage one: Doncaster to Selby (182.5km)

1. Jesper Asselman (Ned) Roompot-Charles, in 4-05-45

2. Filippo Fortin (Ita) Cofidis, Solutions Crédits

3. Jonas Van Genechten (Bel) Vital-Concept-B&B Hotels

4. Boy van Poppel (Ned) Roompot-Charles

5. Gabriel Cullaigh (GBr) Wiggins-Le Col

6. Ethan Hayter (GBr) Great Britain

7. Cyril Barthe (Fra) Euskadi Basque Country-Murias

8. Mark Cavendish (GBr) Dimension Data

9. Chris Lawless (GBr) Team Ineos

10. Rick Zabel (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin, all at same time

General classification after stage one

1. Jesper Asselman (Ned) Roompot-Charles, in 4-05-34

2. Filippo Fortin (Ita) Cofidis, Solutions Crédits, at 5 seconds

3. Jacob Hennessy (GBr) Canyon dhb, at same time

4. Jonas Van Genechten (Bel) Vital Concept-B&B Hotels, at 7s

5. Kevin Vermaerke (USA) Hagens Berman Axeon, at same time

6. Daniel Bigham (GBr) Ribble Pro Cycling, at 10s

7. Boy Van Poppel (Ned) Roompot-Charles, at 11s

8. Gabriel Cullaigh (GBr) Wiggins-Le Col

9. Ethan Hayter (GBr) Great Britain

10. Cyril Barthe (Fra) Euskadi Basque Country-Murias, all at same time

The Tour de Yorkshire (May 2-5) boasts a star studded line up as well as several UK teams looking to battle it out with the UCI World Tour pros.

The men's race kicks off on Thursday May 2, with four stages concluding on Sunday May 5, whilst the two stage women's event begins on Friday May 3 - with both routes mirroring those of the men's stages on the same days.

>>> Tour de Yorkshire 2019 route

>>> Tour de Yorkshire 2019 TV guide

>>> Tour de Yorkshire 2019: latest news

Men's 2018 winner Greg Van Avermaet is back, now racing with CCC Team. The race represents the first outing for Team Ineos under their new name, with Chris Froome taking to the start line.

One to perhaps watch in the sprints is Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data), as he looks to prove his form after a slow start to the year following illness.

Harry Tanfield (Team Katusha-Alpecin) returns to the race having wowed crowds by taking a stage win whilst riding for Canyon-Eisburg last year,  a success that perhaps played a part in his move up to the World Tour team.

Canyon is back too, now as Canyon dhb p/b Bloor Homes, with the likes of Rory Townsend and Jacob Hennessy signing on.

The women's race will be an important one for Lizzie Deignan (Boels-Dolmans). Deignan has set September's Yorkshire World Championships as a clear goal, and could use this as a recce. It remains to be seen if she'll be able to shine so early in her season, having returned to racing following the birth of her first child only weeks ago.

Canyon-SRAM will field Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, the former multiple world champion who was cleared to resume training just last month following surgery, as well as both Barnes sisters.

CCC-Liv boasts Marianne Vos, who can never be discounted - the Dutch woman has been showing signs of regaining her former strength with a win at Trofeo Alfredo Binda and third at Amstel Gold Race. She'll have support from Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, though the South African has been struggling with form following an early season crash.

Mitchelton-Scott brings Annemiek van Vleuten, who finally achieved the win she was seeking at Liège-Bastogne-Liège only days ago.

UK teams include Drops, Storey Racing, Brother UK Tifosi and the Great Britain national team, fielding a whos-who of UK talent, including Dani Christmas (GB), returning from her base in Belgium, everlasting talent Nicola Juniper (GB), Sarah Storey (Storey Racing), both Barker sisters Elinor and Megan (Drops) and Anna Henderson (Brother) to name a few.

Tour de Yorkshire 2019: men's start list

CCC Team

1 VAN AVERMAET Greg

2 BERNAS Paweł

3 DE MARCHI Alessandro

4 PAUWELS Serge

5 SCHÄR Michael

6 VAN HOOYDONCK Nathan

7 VAN KEIRSBULCK Guillaume

Team Ineos

11 FROOME Chris

12 BASSO Leonardo

13 DOULL Owain

14 DUNBAR Eddie

15 GOŁAŚ Michał

16 LAWLESS Chris

17 STANNARD Ian

Team Dimension Data

21 CAVENDISH Mark

22 DLAMINI Nic

23 EISEL Bernhard

24 RENSHAW Mark

25 SLAGTER Tom-Jelte

26 TILLER Rasmus

Cofidis, Solutions Crédits

31 ROSSETTO Stéphane

32 FORTIN Filippo

33 LAFAY Victor

34 MORIN Emmanuel

35 PEREZ Anthony

36 VAN LERBERGHE Bert

37 WAEYTENS Zico

Team Katusha - Alpecin

41 HAAS Nathan

42 BIERMANS Jenthe

43 CRAS Steff

44 TANFIELD Harry

45 ZABEL Rick

Madison Genesis

51 SWIFT Connor

52 BIBBY Ian

53 CUMING Michael

54 HANDLEY Richard

55 HOLMES Matthew

56 MCEVOY Jonathan

57 WALKER Joey

Team Total Direct Energie

61 HIVERT Jonathan

62 GRELLIER Fabien

63 JOURNIAUX Axel

64 NAULEAU Bryan

65 OURSELIN Paul

66 PICHOT Alexandre

67 SICARD Romain

Rally UHC Cycling

71 JOYCE Colin

72 ANDERSON Ryan

73 CARPENTER Robin

74 DE VOS Adam

75 MAGNER Ty

76 MURPHY John

77 TUFT Svein

Vital Concept - B&B Hotels

81 ROLLAND Pierre

82 BAGOT Yoann

83 BOECKMANS Kris

84 COURTEILLE Arnaud

85 PACHER Quentin

86 REZA Kévin

87 VAN GENECHTEN Jonas

Euskadi Basque Country - Murias

91 ARISTI Mikel

92 BARRENETXEA Ander

93 BARTHE Cyril

94 IRIZAR Julen

95 LÓPEZ-CÓZAR Juan Antonio

96 RODRÍGUEZ Sergio

97 SÁEZ Héctor

Team Wiggins Le Col

101 PIDCOCK Thomas

102 CHRISTIAN Mark

103 CULLAIGH Gabriel

104 FOUCHÉ James

105 JENNER Samuel

106 NAVARRO Corentin

107 SCOTT Robert

Hagens Berman Axeon

111 BJERG Mikkel

112 BROWN Jonny

113 GARRISON Ian

114 QUINN Sean

115 RICE Michael

116 VERMAERKE Kevin

117 ZIJLAARD Maikel

Canyon dhb p/b Bloor Homes

121 STEWART Thomas

122 HENNESSY Jacob

123 MCCARTHY Robert-jon

124 PEARSON Daniel

125 STEDMAN Maximilian

126 TENNANT Andrew

127 TOWNSEND Rory

Roompot - Charles

131 LAMMERTINK Maurits

132 ASSELMAN Jesper

133 DUIJN Huub

134 LEYSEN Senne

135 VAN DER LIJKE Nick

136 VAN POPPEL Boy

137 VAN SCHIP Jan-Willem

SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling

141 SHAW James

142 BRADBURY Stephen

143 MUNDY Isaac

144 ROBBINS Tristan

145 SCOTT Jacob

146 WILLIAMS Peter

147 WOOD George

Riwal Readynez Cycling Team

151 KAMP Alexander

152 ERIKSSON Lucas

153 HAGEN Krister

154 LUNKE Sindre

155 STOKBRO Andreas

156 VEYHE Torkil

157 VINJEBO Emil

Vitus Pro Cycling

161 THWAITES Scott

162 BRIGGS Graham

163 KENWAY Adam

164 LATHAM Christopher

165 MCGLINCHEY Christopher

166 MOTTRAM Michael

167 SLATER Alistair

Ribble Pro Cycling

171 BIGHAM Daniel

172 AULD Scott

173 ARCHIBALD John

174 KYFFIN Zeb

175 LEWIS Gruffudd

176 LUHRS Alex

177 TIPPER Jacob

Great Britain

181 MCLAY Daniel

182 CALVERT Charley

183 FLYNN Sean

184 HAYTER Ethan

185 NALLY Joe

186 TIDBALL William

187 TURNER Ben

Tour de Yorkshire 2019: women's start list

Boels - Dolmans Cycling Team

VAN DER BREGGEN Anna

BLAAK Chantal

BUURMAN Eva

D'HOORE Jolien

DIDERIKSEN Amalie

PIETERS Amy

Trek-Segafredo Women

DEIGNAN Elizabeth

CORDON-RAGOT Audrey

LONGO BORGHINI Elisa

PATERNOSTER Letizia

WILES Tayler

WINDER Ruth

Mitchelton-Scott

VAN VLEUTEN Annemiek

ELVIN Gracie

KENNEDY Lucy

ROY Sarah

SPRATT Amanda

TENNIGLO Moniek

CCC - Liv

VOS Marianne

DEMEY Valerie

KOREVAAR Jeanne

MARKUS Riejanne

MOOLMAN Ashleigh

ROOIJAKKERS Pauliena

Canyon SRAM Racing

BARNES Alice

BARNES Hannah

ERATH Tanja

FERRAND-PRÉVOT Pauline

HARRIS Ella

RIFFEL Christa

Team Sunweb

LIPPERT Liane

ANDERSEN Susanne

MATHIESEN Pernille

GEORGI Pfeiffer

LABOUS Juliette

SOEK Julia

WNT-Rotor Pro Cycling

MAGNALDI Erica

BRENNAUER Lisa

HAMMES Kathrin

SANTESTEBAN Ane

TEUTENBERG Lea Lin

VIECELI Lara

FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope

GILLOW Shara

DUVAL Eugénie

FAHLIN Emilia

GUILMAN Victorie

KITCHEN Lauren

RICHIOUD Greta

Valcar Cylance Cycling

CAVALLI Marta

ARZUFFI Alice Maria

BALSAMO Elisa

CONFALONIERI Maria Giulia

CONSONNI Chiara

SANGUINETI Ilaria

Movistar Team

GARCIA Mavi

FOURNIER Roxane

LLAMAS Lorena

MERINO Eider

OYARBIDE Lourdes

TERUEL Alba

Team TIBCO - SVB

JACKSON Alison

CHAPMAN Brodie

KESSLER Nina

MALSEED Shannon

SLIK Rozanne

STEPHENS Lauren

Parkhotel Valkenburg

WIEBES Lorena

BUYSMAN Nina

DE BOER Sophie

DE GAST Belle

KNETEMANN Roxane

VOLLERING Demi

Alé Cipollini

HOSKING Chloe

KASPER Romy

PALADIN Soraya

TREVISI Anna

VANT GELOOF Marjolein

YONAMINE Eri

Bigla Pro Cycling

LUDWIG Cecilie Uttrup

ALZINI Martina

BANKS Elizabeth

LETH Julie

SPEROTTO Maria Vittoria

WRIGHT Sophie

Hitec Products

GARNER Lucy

GARNER Grace

GASKJENN Ingvild

HEINE Vita

LORVIK Ingrid

STOUGJE Chanella

Drops

PARKINSON Abby-Mae

BARKER Elinor

BARKER Megan

CHRISTIAN Anna

DICKINSON Eleanor

HOLDEN Elizabeth

Great Britain

CALLANDER Rhona

CHRISTMAS Dani

DOCHERTY Anna

DOLAN Lauren

JUNIPER Nicola

ROBERTS Jessica

Storey Racing

STOREY Sarah

BÄCKSTEDT Elynor

DEW Monica

MASON Chanel

MONKHOUSE Amy

MURPHY Kelly

Brother UK Tifosi

HENDERSON Anna

DIXON Leah

DURRELL Rebecca

FINNEY Jessica

SHAW Gabriella

WADSWORTH Emily

Protesters have made their voices heard as Team Ineos sets off on their first race day after the official launch.

The British team made their debut under the new name at the Tour de Yorkshire on Thursday (May 2), after the switch from Team Sky.

But it wasn’t a day of universal celebration, as environmental campaigners protested outside the Team Ineos bus at the start of stage one.

Chemical company Ineos has attracted condemnation from environmentalists because of its business practices, including plastic production and links to fracking.

>>> Critics say chemical company Ineos is ‘greenwashing’ with Team Sky sponsorship

One protester at the start of the race in Doncaster, who lives in an area where Ineos could carry out fracking, told Cycling Weekly: “I’m here because I’m against Ineos and their greenwashing assault on a number of sports.

“We don’t want fracking. We don’t believe we need it; there are alternatives out there like wind, solar and tidal.

“There are a lot of cycling fans that have come forward and said how disappointed they are.

“We’ve come across a number of cycling fans that are not happy with this sponsorship and we’re here to raise awareness, show who Ineos really are and get our image across.

“For the riders, it’s disappointing to see these guys draped in Ineos colours and their name, their image.

“For me, the moral compass is totally out of calibration.”

The announcement that Team Sky would continue under a new sponsorship came earlier this year, as Britain’s richest man Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his firm Ineos stepped in.

While many welcomed the news that Britain’s only WorldTour team would survive, some raised concerns about the new backer.

Ineos is one of the largest manufacturers of chemicals and oil products in the world, including the production of solvents, biofuels, plastics, synthetic oils and insulation materials.

Small plastic pellets used by plastic producers like Ineos can wind up in the sea, harming wildlife and polluting the water.

The firm has committed to ensuring that these pellets do not end up in the marine environment through its Zero Pellet Loss Programme, changing the way the products are handled.

Another environmental concern centred around Ineos is the practice of fracking – drilling into the earth and blasting liquid at the rock to release natural gas inside.

Ineos has permission to explore for shale gas in parts of the north of England and the East Midlands.

Fracking is a controversial process because of the environmental impacts of transporting huge amounts of water and the risk of earth tremors.

Professional cycling does benefit from the sponsorship of a number of gas and plastic-linked companies, including Russian gas supplier Gazprom and French oil and gas company Total.

When asked about those cycling sponsorships, the protester told Cycling Weekly: “I only have time to fight one thing at a time. I’m involved in anti-fracking in my spare time. I’ve got a full time job, a young family, I don’t have time to fight everything.”

Many have highlighted the fact that Team Sky were heavily involved in environmental campaigns that aimed to raise awareness of single-use plastics.

The team unveiled a new Tour de France kit in 2018 that featured images of Orcas, while also vowing to eliminate single-use plastics from the outfit by 2020.

During the Team Ineos launch in Yorkshire on Wednesday (May 1), four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome said the team would continue their commitment to reducing single-use plastic consumption.

Founder and chairman of Ineos Ratcliffe, also responded to criticism aimed at the company.

He said: “We are going to improve technologies and recycling, a lot of science going to help solve that problem,”

Ratcliffe said. “But you look at cycling, [bikes] are essential for modern life. You go to a hospital, it’s all plastic, your car is half plastic, your food is wrapped in plastic. Plastic does have value in our modern life whether you like it or not, and we don’t chuck it in the sea. We do what we can to help, but we can’t solve the whole problem.”

>>> Why it’s up to cycling fans and the media to hold team sponsors accountable for their actions

Ratcliffe added: “Team Ineos is a completely different thing to the fracking issue,” added Ratcliffe.

“If I look at the UK, we are sat on some potentially extraordinary reserves. Gasses are great fuel, it’s a clean fuel compared to coal or importing gas. It creates jobs and investments. Why wouldn’t you look at exploring that in the UK? I think it’s outrageous that the government listens to a noisy minuscule minority instead of looking at the science, which is what they should do.”

Cycling Weekly has approached Team Ineos for comment.

We're spoiled for choice when it comes to watching the Tour de Yorkshire (May 2-5), with both ITV4 and Eurosport showing live coverage backed up with highlights for those that missed it.

>>> Tour de Yorkshire 2019 start list

>>> Tour de Yorkshire 2019 route

>>> Tour de Yorkshire 2019: latest news

ITV4 has extensive live action, showing almost the entire stage on each of the four days of the men's race, as well as live coverage of the women's race, which precedes the men's stages on Friday and Saturday (May 3-4) this year.

ITV have their usual hour-long highlights spot at 8pm each day, except Sunday when it moves to 10pm.

Eurosport has live action from both of the women's stages, with catch up viewing of the men's stages in the evening, as well as highlights packages each evening and replays if you're keen to get up for 6.15am.

Live viewing from the men's stages is a little bit less reliable, with footage from the Tour of Romandy occasionally disrupting play.

>>> Tour de Yorkshire 2018: Latest news, reports and race info

Please note that broadcast times may be subject to change. Times quoted are UK time.

Thursday, May 2

13.00-17.45, Men's stage one LIVE, ITV4

20.00-21.00, Men's stage one highlights, ITV4

20.00-21.30, Men's stage one highlights, Eurosport 2

23.30-00.00, Men's stage one highlights, Eurosport 2

Friday, May 3

6.15-7.45, Stage one replay, Eurosport 2

09.00-13.00, Women's stage one LIVE, ITV4

11.00-13.00, Women's stage one, LIVE, Eurosport 2

13.00-14.00, Replay, Eurosport 2

14.30-18.15, Men's stage two LIVE, ITV4

20.00-22.30, Men's stage two, Eurosport 2

20.00-21.00, Highlights, ITV4

23.30-00.30, Highlights, Eurosport 2

Saturday, May 5

6.15-7.45, Replay, Eurosport 2

9.00-13.15, Women's stage two LIVE, ITV 4

13.45-15.00, Women's stage two highlights, Eurosport 2

14.15-18.15, Men's stage three LIVE, ITV4

20.00-22.30, Men's stage three, Eurosport 2

20.00-21.00, Highlights, ITV4

23.30-00.30, Highlights, Eurosport 2

Sunday, May 6

6.15-7.45, Replay, Eurosport 2

12.30-17.30, Men's stage four LIVE, ITV4

20.00-21.30, Men's stage four, Eurosport 2

22.00-23.00, Men's stage four highlights, ITV4

22.30-00.30, Men's stage four highlights, Eurosport 2

Social media/web

Official Twitter account: @letouryorkshire

Official website: www.letour.yorkshire.com

Mark Cavendish has been confirmed to take the start line at the 2019 Tour de Yorkshire.

The 33-year-old returned to racing in the Tour of Turkey, where he took on more of a domestique role, as he continued to work towards full fitness after abandoning Paris-Nice in March.

The Manxman is still on the road to regaining the form which saw him win 30 Tour de France stages, four fewer than record holder Eddy Merckx, after being diagnosed with the Epstein-Barr virus in 2017, that forced him to stop racing and training after the 2018 Tour de France.

>>> Mark Cavendish confirmed to race Tour de Yorkshire

Cavendish's mother lives in Harrogate, and he said of his return to Yorkshire: "I’m really excited to heading back to the Tour de Yorkshire along with my Dimension Data for Qhubeka team-mates to race in one of the most beautiful places in the world.

"I really enjoyed the tough but beautiful parcours last year as I rode the race for the first time, and I look forward to seeing what’s in store for us in the 2019 edition.

"Over and above the racing though, it always blows my mind to see the incredible support of the fans. With some of my family in Yorkshire, it makes it so special and I can’t wait to see them all again."

The former road race world champion has not had an ideal start to the season, having missed Milan-San Remo and Scheldeprijs which he had planned to race in.

Cavendish, who regularly updates fans via his social media accounts, tweeted for the first time in nearly two months yesterday, posting a cryptic message that read: "Guess it’s time to get back on social media! Sorry it’s been a while everyone. Just needed to remember who I am. Thanks for staying with me. Love ya all x".

The Tour de Yorkshire 2019 is bursting with British talent, as four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome (Team Sky), British national road race champion Connor Swift (Madison Genesis) and former road race world champion Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) are set to take the start.

Marcel Kittel, another talented sprinter who has seen his form wane lately, will also be racing, as he looks to get his season back on track.

Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) is to race the 2019 Tour de Yorkshire, the rider has confirmed.

The German is looking to kick start his year after a disappointing early season, with the German admitting he was going through "a difficult period" after finishing 99th and 4-30 down in Scheldeprijs, a race he has previously won five times.

Kittel began 2019 with a win in the Trofeo Palma at Challenge Mallorca but has not crossed the finish line first since. At the UAE Tour his best finish was third and he then abandoned Paris-Nice halfway through the race. The 30-year-old then failed to contest the bunch sprint at Driedaagse Brugge-De Panne, followed by a disappointing performance at Scheldedprijs, which forced his team to call a "crisis meeting" over the rider's poor form.

The sprinter responded to this, saying: "Always easy to beat a man when he’s on the ground. I’m facing a difficult period and I’m thankful for everyone who is supporting me now. To those people making headlines on my cost now: enjoy your minute of fame!"

The 14-time Tour de France stage winner last took the start line in Yorkshire at the inaugural edition of the race in 2015. The year before, the German took one of his Tour de France stage wins at the Grand Depart in Yorkshire, wearing the yellow jersey on stage two between York and Sheffield.

>>> Tour de Yorkshire 2019 route: maps and profiles of every stage

Kittel said: "It’s going to be nice to be back in Yorkshire because of all the memories I have from 2014. It's a great experience to race there in front of all those spectators and I'm looking forward to it."

Other big names who have recently announced they will race the 2019 Tour de Yorkshire include British road race champion Connor Swift (Madison Genesis) and world TT champion Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) will take the start in Barnsley in the women's race.

Environmental campaigners are set to hand out face masks of Jim Ratcliffe, the new owner of Team Sky, at the Tour de Yorkshire in protest at his petrochemical company Ineos taking over as the title sponsor of the British cycling team.

Team Sky are set to use the Tour de Yorkshire as the moment when they change into Team Ineos after the team sealed a new sponsorship deal worth £120 million over three years with Britain's richest man.

The protest, led by the Frack Free United environmentalist group, centres around Ineos' involvement with fracking in the UK, and accusations have been levelled at the petrochemical giant that their sponsorship of the team is an attempt at "greenwashing" their company.

The face masks will have Jim Ratcliffe's face on the front, with details about INEOS and their involvement in gas and oil exploration and production on the back, according to Sportsmail.

Team Sky were wrapped up in controversy last year, with a 2018 parliamentary report finding the team "crossed an ethical line" with their use of the corticosteroid triamcinolone. The team denied any wrongdoing.

The team have also been accused of hypocrisy by environmentalists, as they have previously supported the Sky Ocean Rescue campaign before joining up with one of the world's largest chemical producers.

Chris Froome is currently leading Team Sky in the Tour of the Alps, the final race before their name change.

Whilst the Tour de Yorkshire, which begins on May 2, is set to be Team Ineos' official debut, their first race will actually be the Tour de Romandie, starting two days earlier on April 30.

The team will wear a temporary kit at the Tour de Romandie before the official gear is unveiled in Doncaster for stage one in Yorkshire.

Sky announced it would end its sponsorship of the team last December after 10 years in the sport.

Team boss Dave Brailsford was tasked with finding a new sponsor before the 2019 Tour de France in July, having talks with sponsors in Colombia before Ineos stepped in to save the team.

Sir Gary Verity has resigned from Welcome to Yorkshire amid an investigation into his behaviour towards staff and his expenses.

Verity, director of the Tour de Yorkshire, left his position as chief executive of the tourism agency on “health grounds”, it was announced on Friday (March 22).

He had been a key figure in bringing the Tour de France Grand Départ to Yorkshire in 2014, and founding the Tour de Yorkshire on the back of its success.

>>> Cost of Team Sky women’s squad would be ‘a drop in the ocean’ compared to men’s budget 

Welcome to Yorkshire announced the resignation in a statement, adding that concerns have been raised in relation to his behaviour towards staff and his expenses, but that this was not directly linked to his departure.

Verity said: “Over the last ten and a half years I have always tried to set the highest standards of personal performance and leadership.

“Where this has been achieved, I am grateful and when, on occasions, I have fallen short, I apologise.

“My health is now my main priority. I ask for time and space to heal.

“It has been an honour and a privilege to lead such an inspirational organisation and work with such a creative and talented team

“I know that Welcome to Yorkshire will continue to go from strength to strength and achieve many fantastic things over the coming years.”

Welcome to Yorkshire said it has investigated the allegations against Verity and found he “made errors of judgement regarding his expenses at a very difficult time for him and his family.”

>>> Tour of Britain announces debut in Cornwall for 2020 start 

The organisation said he has voluntarily agreed to reimburse Welcome to Yorkshire for the money owed.

Verity has been chief executive since October 2008 and was knighted in 2015 for “services to tourism and the Tour de France Grand Départ 2014.”

Earlier this year the 54-year-old was linked with the Premier League’s chief executive job and was reportedly in talks with the football organisation about taking on the role.

Team Sky’s Chris Froome plans to ride the 2019 Tour de Yorkshire, race organisers have confirmed.

Froome is due to line up at the four-day British stage race in May, the first time he has ridden there.

The news was announced by the Tour de Yorkshire race organisers shortly after Team Sky confirmed both Froome and Geraint Thomas will target the 2019 Tour de France.

Froome said: “Yorkshire hosted the start of the Tour de France a few years ago and the atmosphere was just incredible.

“The Tour de Yorkshire has been growing year on year and I’d like to get out there this year.”

>>> Which WorldTour team has the best kit for 2019? 

Froome will be targeting a fifth Tour de France victory this summer, which would grant access to an elite club of just four other riders who have achieved that feat.

He will be joined by 2018 Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas, who will be looking to defend his yellow jersey.

Both Froome and Thomas are looking ahead to the 2019 World Championships, which will be held in Yorkshire later this year.

Chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, Sir Gary Verity, said: “Both Chris and Geraint raced in Yorkshire when we hosted the Grand Depart of the Tour de France in 2014 so have first-hand experience of the incredible crowds and carnival atmosphere here in Yorkshire.

“They will be guaranteed the hugest of Yorkshire welcomes for the Tour de Yorkshire and the UCI Road World Championships and we can’t wait to see them race on our county’s roads.”

>>> Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas target Tour de France as Egan Bernal leads team at Giro d’Italia

The Tour de Yorkshire was first held in 2015 as the legacy of the 2014 Tour de France Grand Depart.

Around 2.6million people lined the streets to watch the 2018 edition, while 12.5million people tuned in from 190 countries.

Speaking about the 2019 Worlds, Thomas said: “Looking at the course for the Worlds in Yorkshire, I think the elite men’s individual time trial will be my best chance of getting a title.

“It’ll be a good goal to have for the end of the year.

“I certainly want to be there because the support in Yorkshire is unbelievable.

“I think it’s going to be a massive World Championships and I want to be a part of it.”

The organisers of the Tour de Yorkshire have taken more big steps to promote women’s cycling during the 2019 race.

For the first time, the women’s peloton will follow the same routes as the men during their two-day event in May.

The race will also be held on a Friday and Saturday, giving more people the opportunity to watch the race.

>>> Tour de Yorkshire 2019 route: maps and profiles of every stage 

Chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, Sir Gary Verity, said: “I’m also proud that we’re continuing to lead the way when it comes to promoting women’s cycling.

“Changing the start of the women’s race from Thursday to Friday should guarantee greater exposure and the routes for the two stages are now exactly the same as the men’s.

“That means there’s over 1,000m more cumulative climbing that last year and we’ll be in for some enthralling racing.”

The women’s race will be held on May 3-4 , following the same routes as stages two and three of the men’s race.

This means any riders looking at the women’s World Championship road race will be given the chance to test out the finishing circuit in advance under race conditions.

Stage one, Barnsley - Bedale (132km) - May 3

This stage has the potential to draw in some big names from the professional peloton, as it takes on some of the same roads as the 2019 World Championships route.

Setting off from Barnsley, the 132km stage heads north-east to Pontefract, then round Leeds onto Leathley.

There the peloton will take on the first of five new climbs on this year’s route – the Côte de Lindley.

From there it’s on to Harrogate, where riders have the chance to tackle the exact same circuit being used in the Worlds road race.

Tour de Yorkshire organisers have added an intermediate sprint along Parliament Street where the Worlds finish line will be, giving riders a unique chance to recce the course under race conditions.

The stage then continues north to Ripon and onto Bedale for a predicted bunch sprint.

This route will also be the exact same setting for stage two of the Tour de Yorkshire men’s race

Stage two, Bridlington - Scarborough (132km) - May 4

Heading out of Bridlington, riders will take on the North York Moors National Park over 132km.

The Côte de Silpho follows, then the opening intermediate sprint at Harwood Dale.

After heading north, the route follows a 52km loop just after Flyingfales.

Passing through Robin Hood’s Bay, the peloton then hit the Côte de Hooks House Farm, then on to Whitby.

Spectacular views will then follow on the approach to Sansend, where the Côte de Lythe Bank awaits.

After summiting that climb, the Côtes de Grosmont and Ugglebarnby are just 7km apart.

It will be a fast finish down into Scarborough, where the race wil head around the castle walls and on to the finish along North Bay.

Again this will be the same route followed by the men on stage three.

The race marshal who had the narrowest of narrowest escapes after nearly being hit by an Astana team car at the Tour de Yorkshire has revealed that he got up and continued to do his job following the incident.

Philip Sullivan was standing on a traffic island in the middle of the road on the final stage of the race on Sunday, waving his flag to direct riders and vehicles around the road furniture when the crash occurred.

Sullivan showed quick reaction to jump out of the way as an Astana team car smashed through the bollards on the traffic island, and has now revealed that he got back up and continued in his duties after the crash.

"I knew the riders were coming and I had a job to do," Sullivan told BBC Sport. "I am still thinking how close it was, but luckily I do not have a scratch."

Sullivan also said that he had been in contact with Astana and the driver of the car, sports director Lars Michaelsen, with the two agreeing to "go for a beer" at next year's Tour de Yorkshire, where Sullivan said that he would also be volunteering.

Welcome to Yorkshire says that it is currently investigating the incident, and that it was working to "determine the facts of exactly what happened".

Sunday’s final stage of the Tour de Yorkshire took place over 189km from Halifax to Leeds, with Astana’s Magnus Cort Nielsen beginning the stage as overall leader ahead of Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing).

Stephane Rossetto (Cofidis) won the stage after an impressive solo breakaway of over 100km, while Cort Nielsen, who won the hill top finish on stage two, was unable to prevent Van Avermaet and his BMC team getting away and stealing the overall win from his grasp.

The race's first summit finish was a great addition

Yorkshire may lack high mountains, but it boasts a wealth of gruelling climbs worthy of testing the legs of the world's best professional cyclists. The case was proven in this year's Tour de Yorkshire (May 3-6), with the race's first ever summit finish included on stage two on the Cow and Calf, Ilkley.

Fans were treated the the sight of Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), last year's winner Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data) and eventual stage winner Magnus Cort Nielsen (Astana) battling up the eye-watering final gradient in a slow-motion sprint battle in the men's race.

As was a feature of the entire race, the huge crowds packed the sides of the road to watch the action unfold in a sort-out of the general classification, where Olympic champion Van Avermaet laid the groundwork for his eventual overall victory.

>>> Tour de Yorkshire 2018: Latest news, reports and race info

And the final stage on Sunday – touted as one of the toughest routes for any bike race ever held in the UK – provided a fitting finale for the men's race.

In the women's race, Megan Guarnier (Boels Dolmans) tackled the Cow and Calf with a strong solo effort to seal the overall win, which provided a great finale to the race.

It's hard to quibble with the route of this year's Tour de Yorkshire.

British riders didn't disappoint against the WorldTour opposition

One of the fascinations among British cycling fans is being able to compare 'home' riders with their WorldTour counterparts. The Tour de Yorkshire provides a rare opportunity for the likes of Madison Genesis, One Pro Cycling, JLT Condor and Canyon Eisberg to pit their riders against the highly-paid opposition.

And they did not disappoint. The opening stage of the men's race provided a surprise, as the break evaded a chase by the peloton to allow Harry Tanfield (Canyon-Eisberg), Alistair Slater (JLT-Condor) and Mike Cuming (Madison-Genesis) to fight it out for the stage win and early race lead.

Tanfield came out on top – and who would have predicted that the 23-year-old would have finished ahead of the likes of Bryan Coquard or Mark Cavendish?

>>> ‘It’s still sinking in’: Harry Tanfield in disbelief after breakaway victory at Tour de Yorkshire

Most impressive British performance, however, goes to Ian Bibby (JLT Condor), who finished in third just behind Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) on the final, tough stage to claim sixth place overall.

Dani Rowe, riding for the Great Britain composite team, put in one of her strongest rides on the road to finish as runner-up behind Megan Guarnier in the women's race, only 17 seconds adrift.

There's still work to be done regarding road safety

Sadly, one of the aspect of the 2018 TdY that gained widespread attention relate to road safety incidents. Most worrying were those where riders found themselves in open traffic – where the roads were re-opened to the public before all of the riders had travelled through.

The worst of these involved race leader Harry Tanfield and Canyon-Eiseberg team-mate Alex Paton riding through traffic on stage two of the race, with Paton hitting a car head-on and was subsequently taken to hospital. Canyon-Eiseberg's team manager lodged a complaint with race organiser ASO, and reportedly received an apology.

An Astana team car very nearly hit a race marshal on stage four, as it hit a bollard on the central reservation. Astana subsequently issued an apology.

>>> Astana issue apology after video shows team car nearly driving into Tour de Yorkshire race marshal

There were also other incidences of riders either being sent the wrong way by a race official or missing signage, and taking the wrong road – as happened on stage two.

In the women's race, national hill-climb champion Joscelin Lowden abandoned stage one after an incident that involved a race security motorbike. She was later diagnosed with a fractured collarbone.

In total, that is a wide range of incidents with different causes and concerns. Organisers need to address the issues of safety on Yorkshire's roads both for the 2019 edition of the race and the forthcoming World Championships.

Women's race all the better for an extra day

Both the men's and women's races benefitted from an extra day in 2018, but it was the women's race that changed dramatically, going from a single day event to two days.

The way in which the TdY has integrated the women's and men's race together was neat. The two events shared broadly the same routes on stages one and two, including the same start/finish locations, with the women's race taking place in the morning and men in the afternoon.

>>> Megan Guarnier wins stage and overall at the Tour de Yorkshire with well timed attack

That meant that the women's race concluded with the summit finish on the Cow and Calf on Friday, providing a spectacular finale to two days of first-class racing.

Organiser ASO has hit a great formula for the Women's Tour de Yorkshire – one that it would do well to replicate for La Course by Le Tour de France, which has yet to settle on a successful format.

2019 World Champs should be fantastic

The roads of Yorkshire will host the 2019 UCI Road Cycling World Championships, and it looks like whoever is tasked with working out the road race and time trial routes is going to be spoilt for choice.

This year's Tour de Yorkshire, just like the 2014 Tour de France Grand Départ before it, perfectly showcased everything that the county has to offer for such a prestigious event, and it helped that the weather could not have been better.

>>> Huge roadside support a major factor in securing 2019 World Championships for Yorkshire

Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive Sir Gary Verity has already said that the 2019 Worlds racing will take in the 'four corners of Yorkshire', with Harrogate acting as the centrepiece.

Also guaranteed is the huge amount of support that the event will attract, with vast numbers of spectators expected and with support coming from local, regional and national authorities.

And now there's talk that the Vuelta a España could also use Yorkshire to host its opening stages in the next few years.

Now, if only they can guarantee the good weather...

Team Astana car crash #TDY2018 #TourDeYorkshire2018 pic.twitter.com/l3ZUr4Ipfz

— Nathan Currie (@nathlukecurrie) May 6, 2018

Astana have issued an apology after video footage on Sunday emerged showing their team car almost driving into a race marshal on the final stage of the Tour de Yorkshire.

Footage from a roadside spectator shows the race passing through a right-hand bend with the team cars following behind. The marshal in question was standing on a central reservation in the road, directing race traffic either side, when the Astana car sped round the bend and was seemingly unable to stop before driving too wide and straight towards the marshal.

The marshal was able to dive out of the way before the Astana car went crashing through the bollards on the central reservation, and was reportedly unharmed.

The Kazakh team issued a statement on Monday, saying they had spoken to race organisers about the incident and were trying to contact the marshal who avoided the car.

"We’re deeply sorry about the incident with our team car," the team said. "The sport director that was driving the car contacted the race organizer directly after the race to send our apologies. We’re trying to get in touch with the marshal as well. We’re sorry and want this to never happen again."

Tour de Yorkshire organisers ASO have yet to make a statement on the incident, which was shared widely across social media on Sunday evening.

Sunday's final stage of the Tour de Yorkshire took place over 189km from Halifax to Leeds, with Astana's Magnus Cort Nielsen beginning the stage as overall leader ahead of Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing).

Stephane Rossetto (Cofidis) won the stage after an impressive solo breakaway of over 100km, while Cort Nielsen, who won the hill top finish on stage two, was unable to prevent Van Avermaet and his BMC team getting away and stealing the overall win from his grasp.

French rider Stephane Rossetto (Cofidis) won an enthralling, exciting final stage of the Tour de Yorkshire on Sunday. After attacking fellow escapee Max Steadman (Canyon-Eisberg) on the approach to third of the day's six climbs, the 31 year-old rode solo for the final 115km to bag a magnificent victory.

Behind, BMC rode a tactical masterpiece, placing Greg Van Avermaet second at the end of the 189.5km stage allowing him to take overall victory in the four day race. Eduard Prades (Euskadi-Murias) took an impressive second place on general classification, while last year's victor Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data) placed third.

British JLT-Condor rider Ian Bibby was pipped to the line by Van Avermaet and finished third on the day.

In what was a fabulously complex race all was up for grabs, with Rossetto cresting the final four classified climbs of the day in first place, thus securing the King of the Mountains jersey to add to his stage win.

How it happened

After an frantic opening few kilometres, a large break went up the road early in the stage between Halifax and Leeds. The 15 riders contained some who could challenge for the overall win, and behind them the Astana team of race leader Magnus Cort Nielsen split under pressure of the high pace, putting the Dane's overall lead in peril.

Meanwhile, between the opening two classified climbs, Stedman and eventual winner Rossetto (Cofidis) escaped the leading group and, with just 40km behind them, led the peloton by more than four minutes.

Taking maximum points on the second and third of the day's six classified climbs, it appeared Stedman was attempting to claim the King of the Mountains jersey Mike Cuming (Madison-Genesis) had worn since stage one. However, as the pair tackled an unclassified ramp just before the day's most challenging climb, Park Rash, the Briton was dropped by his French companion.

At an average gradient of 10.5 per cent Park Rash caused a rearranging of the chase group, with Stedman settling in, taking the place of others who were dropped.

>>> Tour de Yorkshire 2018: Latest news, reports and race info

In that group BMC's Brent Bookwalter and Belgian Steff Cras (Katusha-Alpecin) began the day just 27 seconds behind Cort Nielsen, and were consequently the major threat to the general classification.

As the race settled, Bookwalter and Cras were joined in that chase group by Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie), Connor Swift (Madison-Genesis), Owain Doull (Sky), Mark Christian (Aqua Blue), Jai Hindley (Sunweb), Bryan Coquard (Vital Concept), Pim Ligthart (Roompot-Nederlandse Lotterij), Tom Baylis (One Pro), Kyle Murphy (Rally) Max Stedman (Canyon Ersberg), Tom Pidcock (GB), Garikoitz Bravo (Euskadi-Murias) and Scott Davies (Dimension Data).

Of those, Bravo and Davies had team mates within 15 seconds of Cort Nielsen's overall lead, so with the group's lead on the peloton at over four minutes, Euskadi-Murias and Dimension Data belatedly sent riders to help Astana's chase.

Meanwhile, at the front Rossetto worked hard to maintain a lead which had settled at about four minutes on the chasing group and approximately double that on the peloton.

Having turned into a headwind around half way through the day, it was only with 65km left that the Frenchman's lead began to drop, possibly due to attacks coming from the group as first Ligthart, then Chavanel made ultimately fruitless digs. However, those attacks dislodged Stedman from the group, ensuring Rossetto would win the mountains classification.

As the gap between the bunch and the chasing group began to drop, attacks on the penultimate climb, the Côte de Greenhow Hill, forced a further selection, Katusha-Alpecin's Robert Kiserlovski making the first move despite having Cras in the group ahead. In the resulting group BMC had four riders, giving Van Avermaet a numerical and tactical advantage.

These moves caused uncertainty among the chasers, allowing Rossetto to take a lead of three minutes onto the day's final climb, the Côte de Otley Chevin, but with Bookwalter still ahead it was Dimension Data who were forced to work to make the catch with 25km to go.

As the remains of the peloton made it onto the Otley climb, attacks first from last year's winner Pauwels, then Aqua Blue's Eddie Dunbar finally distanced race leader Cort Nielsen, isolated after Astana's earlier work.

From there group of around fifteen riders, including four from BMC remained to contest the final 20km.

The general classification success is Olympic champion Van Avemmaet's second win of the season, the Belgian having suffered bad luck and less than optimal form through the spring classics he had dominated in 2017.

Results

Tour de Yorkshire Stage four - Halifax to Leeds

1. Stephane Rossetto (Fra) Cofidis, in 4-53-22

2. Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing, at 34 secs

3. Ian Bibby (GBr) JLT-Condor

4. Eddie Dunbar (Irl) Aqua Blue

5. Eduard Prades (Esp) Euskadi-Murias

6. Anthony Perez (Fra) Cofidis

7. Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Direct Energie

8. Serge Pauwels (Bel) Dimension Data

9. Robert Kiserlovski (Cro) Katusha-Alpecin

10. Michael Storer (Aus) Team Sunweb, all at same time

Tour de Yorkshire final general classification

1. Greg van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing in 16-38-00

2. Eduard Prades (Esp) Euskadi-Murias at 9 secs

3. Serge Pauwels (Bel) Dimension Data at 14 secs

4. Robert Kiserlovski (Cro) Katusha-Alpecin at 19 secs

5. Michael Storer (Aus) Team Sunweb at same time

6. Ian Bibby (GBr) JLT-Condor at 23 secs

7. Anthony Perez (Fra) Cofidis at 25 secs

8. Eddie Dunbar (Ire) Aqua Blue at 27 secs

9. Patrick Bevin (Aus) BMC at 37 secs

10. Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Direct Energie at 39 secs

Sprinter Mark Cavendish has sad his first race back from injury has shown him his form is a little behind where he thought it would be.

“It has been a shock to the system, having had so little racing this year,” said the Manxman after arriving at the finish of stage three of the Tour de Yorkshire in Scarborough more than eight minutes behind winner Max Walsheid (Sunweb).

“I thought I’d be a bit better than I am,” he said. “I’m a bit skinny, I’ve been training but I’m just missing that top end.”

The Dimension Data captain last finished a race at the Tour of Oman in February and has since crashed out of the Abu Dhabi Tour, Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-San Remo. He started the Tour de Yorkshire hopeful of bagging a stage win on either of the first or third stages that, on paper, appeared to suit a bunch sprint.

However, on the first he was denied the opportunity because the breakaway stayed away to contest the win and on the third he found himself distanced from the peloton on the Cote de Sipho around 50km from the finish when BMC upped the pace.

“We knew they were going to do it, we’d talked about it,” he said referring to BMC’s pressure on the climb. “We were trying to hang on over the top… When I felt myself blowing I thought maybe I can get over it but I didn’t have do enough to do it.

“We were behind by about 30 seconds and we knew we had to commit before the TV knew I’d been dropped because the bunch gets a tow from the TV motorbike and we don’t and we might never get back unfortunately we didn’t get it going before the TV saw us.”

Still, Cavendish seemed relaxed with his family around him at the finish and will doubtless be making plans to find his top end before his big goal of the Tour de France in July. Before that race he is due to race the Tour of California in later this month and Tour of Slovenia in June.

Three British riders are set to battle it out on the final day of the Tour de Yorkshire for the mountains jersey with just two points separating the trio.

The current jersey wearer is Mike Cuming, who has held the red jersey since stage one of the race, but missed out on adding to his total today as Madison-Genesis team mate Johnny McEvoy got into the day three breakaway.

"I was a bit disappointed to miss the move, but I saw Johnny go on the right hand side and it was great to have him there. That was his KOM jersey today because he saved it for me personally so Johnny is the man today." Cuming said.

>>> Max Walscheid wins Tour de Yorkshire 2018 stage three sprint as Magnus Cort Nielsen retains lead

McEvoy was able to rack up six points over the third stage's two climbs to move just two points behind Cuming heading into the gruelling stage four.

Cuming said: "[Tomorrow is a] big day, we’ve now got two cards to play to go for the jersey, and Richard Handley is a class act I could see him getting up there on the stage too. We’ve recced the stage and its really ridiculously hard. If we can get myself or Johnny in the break then awesome if we can help Rich get a stage result then awesome. But it's been a great Tour so far."

With three climbs in the first 50 kilometres of the stage, it is possible the lead in the mountains classification could change rapidly as points are accrued over the ascents,

"If it is raced full gas from the start like the stage yesterday [stage two], I could see the race split up a little bit. If a break doesn’t go straight away, it’ll be a horrible day."

The third British rider currently in contention is One Pro Cycling's Pete Williams, who was a breakaway companion with McEvoy on Saturday and also racked up six mountains classification points. The Yorkshireman will be riding on home roads tomorrow and if the opportunity arises he plans to take the fight to the Madison-Genesis duo.

"If I’m in the front of the bike race and it's there to have a go at then yes absolutely, but I’ve had a hard day out today and my legs might fall off tomorrow. It's an incredibly tough stage so who knows what will happen," he said.

>>> Why Sunday’s stage of the Tour de Yorkshire might be the hardest ever on British soil

The tough day that lies in wait for the peloton contains six climbs including the infamous Park Rash. However, all six climbs have the prize of four, two and one points on offer for the first three riders over the climb.

That means that an outsider could swoop in to steal the jersey with a big day over the climbs of Yorkshire, something that Williams is well aware of.

"Essentially there have been two mountains each day and tomorrow is a completely different day and someone completely new could be in the breakaway tomorrow so its still massively open," he said.

Young German rider Max Walscheid (Sunweb) took victory on stage three of the 2018 Tour de Yorkshire, beating race leader Magnus Cort Nielsen (Astana) to victory in Scarborough.

The 24-year-old timed his sprint perfectly to leave everyone his wake just ahead of the line, with Jon Aberasturi (Euskadi-Murias) pipping Bryan Coquard (Vital Concept) to third behind Cort Nielsen.

The Dane retains the overall lead after stage three, adding six bonus seconds for his runner-up spot and extending his gap to 10 seconds over Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) ahead of Sunday's finale.

How it happened

Pete Williams (One Pro Cycling), Johnny McEvoy (Madison Genesis), Robbert de Greef (Roompot), Mathias Le Turnier (Cofidis), Adam Kenway (Vitus) got away as the early break, establishing a maximum gap of around three minutes.

They were able to hold off the chasing bunch over the first categorised climb of the day Côte de Sutton Bank, but things began to turn against them approaching the second of the day Côte de Silpho.

They held on over the top of the climb with 51km to go, but the gap was closing fast, and they were eventually caught with just over 30km to go.

The climb and the increases in speed however saw the bunch split, with Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data getting caught in a group behind the peloton, which eventually drifted to a minute back (and further to two minutes with 17km to go).

That was in part thanks to the work of Vital Concept, who rode hard on the front within the final 28km to try and keep the Cavendish group away and set up the sprint for Bryan Coquard.

But the various uncategorised ups and downs of the run in to Scarborough allowed for some attacks, with four riders - Brent Bookwalter (BMC), Angelo Tulik (Direct Energie), Loïc Chetout (Cofidis) and Leonardo Basso (Sky) - going clear with 25km to go and gaining a small gap.

Cyril Barthe (Euskadi-Murias) was able to bridge across as race leader Magnus Cort Nielsen's Astana chased on, concerned about Bookwalter's (at 21 seconds in GC) presence in the front group.

As Cort Nielsen began to lose team-mates, the group out five began to ride in earnest and drive out a gap up to 10 seconds, but the sprinters' teams began to muster on the front to try and pull things back together.

The gap was eventually closed with 9.5km to go as One Pro Cycling took a turn on the front.

The next action came with around 4.7km to go as Sylvain Chavanel attacked off the front, getting a decent gap before three riders set off in pursuit along with Chavanel's team-meat Jonathan Hivert, who marked the other three before they were all pulled back.

It wasn't to be for the Frenchman though, as the peloton eventually caught him in the final 100m and the sprinters began a drag race for the line.

Bryan Coquard was the first to launch after being dropped off by his Vital Concept lead out, but he couldn't stop race leader Cort Nielsen and Max Walscheid (Sunweb) battling right up to the line, with German Walscheid able to get ahead of Nielsen to the line to take victory.

Cort Nielsen was able to take six bonus seconds for second place on the stage to extend his overall lead to 10 seconds over Greg Van Avermaet.

The riders will take on the final 189.5km stage to Leeds on Sunday with six categorised climbs en route.

Result

Tour de Yorkshire 2018 stage three: Richmond to Scarborough (184km)

1 Max Walscheid (Ger) Team Sunweb, in 4-10-27

2 Magnus Cort (Den) Astana Pro Team

3 Jon Aberasturi Izaga (Esp) Euskadi-Murias

4 Bryan Coquard (Fra) Vital Concept

5 Robert-Jon McCarthy (Irl) JLT Condor

6 Connor Swift (GBr) Madison Genesis

7 Mike Teunissen (Ned) Team Sunweb

8 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing Team

9 Emils Liepins (Lat) One Pro Cycling

10 Colin Joyce (USA) Rally Cycling, all same time

Overall classification after stage three

1 Magnus Cort Nielsen (Den) Astana, in 11-44-02

2 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing, at 10 secs

3 Eduard Prades (Esp) Euskadi-Murias, at 12 secs

4 Colin Joyce (USA) Rally Cycling, at 21s

5 Robert Kiserlovski (Cro) Katusha-Alpecin, st

6 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team, at 27s

7 Steff Cras (Bel) Katusha-Alpecin, st

8 Etienne van Empel (Ned) Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij, at 29s

9 Ian Bibby (GBr) JLT Condor, st

10 Patrick Bevin (NZl) BMC Racing Team, at 39s

Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) is hoping that entering the decisive final stage of the Tour de Yorkshire without the leader’s jersey will give him a tactical advantage in his effort to win the race.

Van Avermaet was the favourite for Friday’s testing summit finish at the Cow and Calf but was beaten to the line by Magnus Cort Nielsen (Astana). The Belgian now sits just four seconds down on GC and with Saturday’s stage expected to finish in a bunch sprint Sunday’s hilly parcours is likely to decide the overall contest.

The Olympic Champion said: “This is a race between some rest for me so I know I’m not in my best shape. I’m happy with how it has gone I’ll just try to survive Sunday, it’s a hard stage, hard to control so maybe it’s not so bad to be in second place.

“We have some guys in the GC maybe Brent [Bookwalter, currently 11 seconds down].. maybe it’s better to have two cards to play in the last stage.”

Van Avermaet launched his sprint on the second stage summit finish with around 450meters left to race but Cort Nielsen reeled him in and came round him. The Belgian said he had no regrets. “I didn’t want to wait any longer I didn’t know who was in my wheel. I think this guy deserved to win he was stronger than me.

Cort Nielsen said: “It was a really hard climb but I was ridden at a stable tempo with few attacks, that suits me. I was sitting there waiting and waiting to open my sprint I went for it an luckily I had the legs.

He added: “It is the perfect day I couldn’t wish for any more… Now you have to hang on two days to go the goal is to keep that jersey now. It’ll be really hard it’s not easy but we’ll fight with everything we have.”

Harry Tanfield's day in the leader's jersey at the Tour de Yorkshire was eventful for a lot of the wrong reasons after he and team-mate Alex Paton found themselves riding on open roads.

"[It was] pretty grim, I spent the first 80 kilometres out of the race. I punctured and the race just went full gas," Tanfield said. "I went harder today than yesterday, thank god it shut down and chilled and I managed to get back on eventually."

>>> Magnus Cort Nielsen beats Greg Van Avermaet to win Tour de Yorkshire stage two

Tanfield's early puncture turned out to be the least of his worries, as the peloton pressed on ahead. Cycling Weekly understands the roads were opened up despite Tanfield and Paton being ahead of the broom wagon.

"We were out the back of the race for 30 kilometres with oncoming traffic, my team-mate Alex Paton hit a car head on. He was in hospital and hopefully he was alright, it was fully open roads and we were a minute and a half out the back and didn’t really know what to do, if we should keep riding or not, because we were fully out the race.

Canyon-Eisberg team manager Tim Elverson lodged a complaint about the traffic on course and later received an apology from race organiser ASO. ASO was not available for comment.

>>> ‘It’s still sinking in’: Harry Tanfield in disbelief after breakaway victory at Tour de Yorkshire

It was later confirmed that Paton escaped any major injuries. Tanfield was lucky to avoid any injuries after the initial huge tyre blowout.

"I had a shocker and went down a hole and blew my tyre out," he said. "I’m on tubeless, but when it blew it just came straight off the rim so you're riding a carbon rim on tarmac. Clincher, tub, solid foam wheels, it doesn’t matter what you were on I would have smashed it. I’m surprised I didn’t fall off it was a crater."

>>> Check out Harry Tanfield’s Tour de Yorkshire stage winning Canyon Aeroad

The mechanical also meant the Canyon-Eisberg rider couldn't enjoy his last moments in the blue jersey as he ground his way up the Cow and Calf to the finish line.

"I was pretty gutted I lost my 32 [sprocket] to be honest, I had to use my 30 to grind up there, which was quite unpleasant. The funny thing was when me and Max did the recce last week we went up a lot faster, and it was relatively chilled but Pool Bank was quite hard, I was going hard but didn’t have any gas for it."

Despite being at times a frustrating day, Tanfield was reflective on an experience he wouldn't have expected to come his way before the race.

"It was good fun, it's a nice day out and it's great while it lasts. I've still got the green jersey as well which is good."

Break sent off course

Tanfield and Paton weren't the only riders to find themselves off the closed roads of the route. The breakaway of Stephane Rossetto (Cofidis), Garikoitz Bravo (Euskadi-Murias), Tom Baylis (One Pro Cycling) and Tobyn Horton (Madison-Genesis) turned off the course twice, which served to demolish most of its gap to the peloton and any hopes its members might have had of contesting the stage.

There were also other crashes on the day that involved several British riders. Chris Lawless (Sky) was among those that crashed on one tight corner and had subsequently had to have stitches in his knee. He did not start on Saturday morning. Madison-Genesis rider George Pym suffered suspected broken fingers in a crash, though he started today.

In the women's race Olympic Champion and Cycling Weekly columnist Katie Archibald suffered a fracture to her clavicle that may require surgery.

Magnus Cort Nielsen (Astana) took the victory at the top of the Cow and Calf climb in Ilkley at the end of stage two of the 2018 Tour de Yorkshire on Friday.

The Danish rider managed to sprint around Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing) within the final 100 metres of the punishing climb to claim the victory, and with it the overall race lead. Spaniard Eduard Prades (Euskadi Basque Country-Murias) came in for third place.

Stage one winner and overnight leader Harry Tanfield (Canyon Eisberg) was dropped by the peloton earlier in the stage and did not defend his lead.

How it happened
The stage started off from Barnsley at a very quick pace, and an escape group struggled to form up. An early escape group comprising Ian Stannard (Team Sky), Ben Swift (Great Britain), Patrick Bevin (BMC), Laurens De Vreese (Astana), Hayden McCormick (One Pro Cycling) and Johannes Fröhlinger (Team Sunweb) formed just before the day's opening climb of Blacker Hill at 29km.

Despite the firepower in the break – and even with Stannard and Swift doing big turns on the front – the peloton must have been mindful of being caught out by a strong break the previous day, and did not allow them much freedom.

The pace of the chase by the peloton also stretched the bunch, with stage one winner and overnight leader Harry Tanfield (Canyon Eisberg) among the riders put out of the back. The six escapees were caught with 100km to go.

Stephane Rossetto (Cofidis) was the next rider to attack from the bunch, and was subsequently joined by Tobyn Horton (Madison Genesis), Tom Baylis (One Pro Cycling) and Garikoitz Bravo (Euskadi Basque Country-Murias).

The new quartet worked well together, and stretched out a gap of two minutes over the bunch.

>>> Tour de Yorkshire 2018: Latest news, reports and race info

However, into the final 40km there was a mishap, as the official race car appeared to lead the riders onto the wrong road after a junction. Once they had got themselves back on the right track, the peloton was within a minute of them.

Shortly afterwards, the break then took another wrong turn on a tight right-hand bend, and lost a few more seconds over the peloton, which was now being pulled along by Stannard after his unsuccessful escape attempt at the start of the day.

Horton dropped out of the break with 33km to go, leaving just Baylis, Bravo and Rossetto out front, but with a slightly increased gap over the peloton of 1-10.

Rossetto put in a big effort on an unclassified climb with 23km to go, dropping both Baylis and Bravo to go solo with a 55-second lead.

The move was short-lived, though. It was all over for the Frenchman on the penultimate climb of Old Pool Bank, and he quickly went backwards through the peloton with 17.5km remaining.

After the climb, BMC massed to the front of the bunch with Team Sky in close attendance, keeping the pace high to try and prevent any riders from trying to attack. However, British rider Jacob Scott (One Pro Cycling) did manage to break free with a huge effort with 6.5km to go.

Scott led the race into the final Cow and Calf climb, getting caught just as the road started to rise with just over 2km to go.

One Pro Cycling and Cofidis riders led the front of the dwindling bunch up the steepest part of the climb, but were ultimately not involved in the final, almost agonising sprint to the line.

Van Avermaet had marked an attack by defending champion Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data), and looked to be biding his time to make a move – and make a move he did, opening up his sprint into the final 200 metres. However, he was no match for Cort Nielsen, who finished with a comfortable gap over Van Avermaet.

Cort Nielsen leads Van Avermaet overall by four seconds, with Prades in third at six seconds.

Earlier in the day, American rider Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans) won stage two of the Women's Tour de Yorkshire from a well-timed attack to claim the overall victory in the two-day race.

The 2018 Tour de Yorkshire continues on Saturday with stage three, a 184km trip from Richmond to Scarborough. The race then concludes on Sunday with a gruelling stage – possibly the toughest stage ever included in the race – from Halifax to Leeds comprising 189.5km.

>>> Tour de Yorkshire 2018: Latest news, reports and race info

Result

Tour de Yorkshire 2018, stage two: Barnsley to Ilkley, 149km

1. Magnus Cort Nielsen (Den) Astana, in 3-25-34

2. Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing

3. Eduard Prades (Esp) Euskadi-Murias

4. Serge Pauwels (Bel) Dimension Data, at same time

5. Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Direct Energie, at 5 secs

6. Robert Kiserlovski (Cro) Katusha-Alpecin

7. Michael Storer (Aus) Team Sunweb

8. Colin Joyce (USA) Rally Cycling, at same time

9. Steff Cras (Bel) Katusha-Alpecin, at 11 secs

10. Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing, at same time

General classification after stage two

1. Magnus Cort Nielsen (Den) Astana, in 7-33-41

2. Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing, at 4 secs

3. Eduard Prades (Esp) Euskadi-Murias, at 6 secs

4. Serge Pauwels (Bel) Dimension Data, at 10 secs

5. Colin Joyce (USA) Rally Cycling, at 15 secs

6. Robert Kiserlovski (Cro) Katusha-Alpecin, at 15 secs

7. Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Direct Energie, at 15 secs

8. Michael Storer (Aus) Team Sunweb, at 15 secs

9. Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing, at 21 secs

10. Steff Cras (Bel) Katusha-Alpecin, at 21 secs

Dani Rowe was delighted that her effort to gain seconds in intermediate sprints paid off, as her third place finish on the final stage of the Tour de Yorkshire resulted in a second place overall finish.

Fresh off her bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games, Rowe was riding for the Great Britain cycling team the past two days on home roads.

"I think a lot of people had a break after the commonwealth games but I had my sights set on this race," Rowe said.

"I went back to my team and road Liège [-Bastogne-Liège] and had good legs there, which surprised me and I thought maybe I can actually ride Yorkshire."

>>> Megan Guarnier wins stage and overall at the Tour de Yorkshire with well timed attack

The third stage came down to an all out slog up the Cow and Calf climb out of Ilkley, with Rowe's research of the route a factor in pacing her effort.

"It was really, really hard. I recced the stage on Tuesday and rode the last half so I knew how hard it was and how long it ran for in the last 200 metres.

"So I was trying to stay within my effort and at one point at the bottom I got a bit gapped but I didn’t panic and I knew it was going to come back together.

"I thought if they kept this up then fair play to them, but thankfully they couldn’t and it meant I just reeled them back."

However it was crucial time bonuses that were pivotal in Rowe securing her second place in the general classification on yesterday's stage into Doncaster and today's summit finish.

"The sprints meant everything as if I didn’t have any sprint seconds I would have been third overall so I’m really glad I went for it now," she added.

"I come from a sprint background, but I’ve never been in that pinnacle sprint finish in trying to go for those seconds, so it was nice that it paid off."

Storey Racing began stage two of the women's Tour de Yorkshire one rider down on Friday after promising 2018 recruit Joscelin Lowden crashed out of stage one following an incident with a race security motorbike.

The former runner and current National Hill Climb champion crashed during the first day, resulting in a fracture of her right clavicle.

Lowden is being treated at HMT Hospitals, one of Storey Racing's sponsors, and is expected to require surgery.

>>> Joscelin Lowden’s ‘borrowed’ national hill-climb winning bike (gallery)

The team has confirmed in a statement that the crash involved a "motorbike that was part of the race security" - adding "TV coverage will be assessed with regards to the cause of the crash."

Lowden, who won the 2017 Hill Climb Championships riding for Lewes Wanderers and started cycling competitively in time trials in 2016, had been feeling good up until the time of the crash.

The team commented: "For Joss Lowden the race left a bittersweet taste, having had enough of the stage to know her legs were in great shape, but finishing on a spine board awaiting the result of a CT scan – which fortunately came back all clear."

"Her team issue KASK Infinity helmet showing it’s superior protective qualities as it has done for team mates previously", they said, adding " the unfortunate result of the crash was a displaced fracture of her right clavicle which is expected to require surgery in the coming days.

"The team are working closely with our sponsor HMT Hospitals who are doing a superb job in arranging everything at short notice."

Harry Tanfield is a hot topic after Thursday's epic win on the first stage of the Tour de Yorkshire, taking the honours from the day long break and finishing just five seconds ahead of the chasing WorldTour studded peloton.

His bike, a Canyon Aeroad, isn't exactly an unobtainable machine that only the professionals or the rich can access.

In fact Tanfield's bike on paper is pretty normal in terms of running gear, however, he has added some subtle details to help him remain as aerodynamically efficient as possible.

The first little detail is on Tanfield's Canyon aero Ergocockpit. It looks like he has placed two small strips of padding on the tops.

We haven't seen anything like this previously on a road stage at least, but Tanfield used these to great effect during much of his day in the break - these small pads will have saved a lot of post race pain on the arms.

Tanfield has opted to use a TT style saddle for a long road stage, which isn't totally conventional.

However, for his style of riding and the fact he likes to get as aggressively aero as possible, this saddle will help him remain relatively comfortable.

Something we've questioned a lot recently at Cycling Weekly is why the pro peloton hasn't adopted tubeless technology yet.

Well Canyon-Eisberg along with Hunt wheels have been advocates of the technology and Tanfield actually used this tubeless set up from Maxxis tyres on his victory ride. Would the tubeless sealant have saved his day if he did have a puncture? I'd like to think so.

All of us here on the CW tech team have been great fans of Shimano Ultegra and often questioned the need to spend more on Dura-Ace. This helps us prove the point! Tanfield won on Ultegra.

He's even got an aero chainring supplied by Rotor. Tanfield has a pretty hefty 55/42 married with a 11/30 cassette.

Interestingly if you wanted to get a similar bike to Tanfield, say like the Canyon Aeroad CF SLX 8.0 Di2, it'll currently set you back £3829, well within reach compared to other big teams at this event.

Megan Guarnier (Boels Dolmans) took a birthday win on the second stage of the Tour de Yorkshire, finishing 17 seconds ahead of the nearest rider and earning the top spot overall following the two stage race.

Canyon SRAM's Alena Amialusik was her closest rival, whilst Dani Rowe (British Cycling) took the third step of the podium and also secured second overall.

With minimal time gaps following the flat, fast finish of the opening stage won by Kristin Wild (Wiggle High5), the climb laden course from Barnsley to Ilkley looked ripe for a breakaway - of which there were several, the final decisive move taking place with under 20 kilometres to go.

A break of fourteen made it to the foot of the Cow and Calf climb, with the 33-year-old American Guarnier timing her attack to perfection in the final uphill stretch to the finish line.

How it happened

Tony Orrell, manager at Torelli-Brother had said in advance “I think it’s going to get blown to bits today. There are no flat sections: it’s just up and down all day" - his words certainly rang true.

Several groups made attempts to get up the road over the 124km of the race, which contained three classified ascents, including the summit finish of the Cow and Calf.

Early attacks proved unsuccessful, with Katia Ragusa (Be Pink) and Manon Lloyd (Drops) gaining a maximum of 51 seconds at the 55 kilometre to go mark, only for their margin to be eroded to 21s with 46km to go; the bunch back together with 40km left.

The peloton reunited, World Champion Chantal Blaak (Boels Dolmans) made her move, she was joined by Eri Yonamine  (Wiggle High5), Floortje Mackaij (Sunweb), Alexis Ryan (Canyon SRAM), and Ane Santesteban Gonzalez (Ale Cipollini) with just over 30km to go.

Blaak, the most experienced rider in the break, took her turns on the front but didn't appear close to her limit - likely using the break to soften the bunch, in preparation for an attack from Boels rider and birthday girl, Megan Guarnier.

The gap remained steady at around 25s, Wiggle High5 still working the front of the peloton and evidently not putting their eggs in the basket of Japanese national champion, Yonamine.

With 23km the peloton had them in sight, whilst some riders towards the rear began to drift from the bunch over the brow of a hill en route to the second classified climb - Cote de Old Pool Bank, which carries an average gradient of 9 per cent.

At the foot of Old Pool Bank, the five riders out front had 27s on the peloton, with 20km to go. The gap crumbled quickly, a clear split forming in the peloton as those with climber's legs got closer to the break, and those without drifted back.

The blue leader's jersey, sat on the shoulders of sprinter Wild, began to slip back as the pace wound up over the climb.

Once the break was caught, Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle High5) sprang to the front, followed by Canyon SRAM's Alena Amialusik, plus Dani Rowe riding for British Cycling and Guarnier.

Longo Borghini's attack created a select group of fourteen riders, with Team Sunweb, Boels Dolmans and Canyon SRAM all represented with numbers.

Rowe, now isolated from her team mates, became the virtual leader of the day having finished six seconds behind Wild on the previous stage. Though she was forced to respond to several attacks in the 17km that followed, wherever possible she sat in the group and saved her legs for the climb.

Sunweb, and particularly the team's time trial specialist Ellen Van Dyke, worked hard to ensure the late break maintained its gap.

The final 10km became an attacking affair, Boels Dolmans leading many of them, with Karol-Ann Canuel and Blaak shooting off the front, leaving the rest of the group to chase and limit the damage whilst Guarnier sat comfortably in the wheels.

With only the ascent of the Cow and Calf climb left, Blaak and Canuel dropped from the group.

Guarnier put in a monster kick to distance herself from the reduced bunch, Amialusik initially following, with Rowe not far behind.

Neither could latch back on to Guarnier, who was able to cross the line 14s ahead of second place Amialusik, with Rowe a further 3s in arrears but still earning a place on the podium.

Results

1 Megan Guarnier (USA) Boels Dolmans in 3-19-50

2 Alena Amialusik (Bel) Canyon SRAM, at 14s

3 Dani Rowe (GBR) British Cycling, at 17s

4 Erica Magnaldi (Ita) BePink, at 22s

5 Ane Santesteban Gonzalez (Spa) Ale Cipollini

6 Liane Lippert (Ger) Sunweb

7 Juliette Labous (Fra) Sunweb, at same time

8 Shara Gillow (Aus) FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope, at 27s

9 Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Wiggle High5, at 28s

10 Janneke Ensing (Ned) Ale Cippolini, at 50s

Final general classification after stage two

1 Megan Guarnier (USA) Boels Dolmans Cyclingteam 6-48-09

2 Dani Rowe (GBr) Great Britain, at 17s

3 Alena Amialiusik (Blr) Canyon-SRAM Racing, at 19s

4 Liane Lippert (Ger) Team Sunweb Women, at 31s

5 Erica Magnaldi (Ita) BePink, at 33s

6 Ane Santesteban (Spa) Ale Cipollini, same time

7 Juliette Labous (Fra) Team Sunweb Women, at 36s

8 Shara Gillow (Aus) FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope, at 38s

9 Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Wiggle High5, at 39s

10 Janneke Ensing (Ned) Ale Cipollini, at 01-01

Harry Tanfield was in understandably jovial and humble mood as he addressed the media after a stunning stage one win at the Tour de Yorkshire.

"It's still sinking in, I’ve got a jersey for every colour except for the KOM one, so its been a good day out," Tanfield said.

"It’s a shame I’ve won all these jerseys and I’m not going to be able to wear them all, but obviously the leader's one trumps them all."

"I could have never dreamt of days like this, even when we were going over the finish line I didn’t think we’d beat the peloton so it’s a fantastic feeling."

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The race victory wasn't even thought as a possibility in the morning, with the main objective for Tanfield to get in the breakaway and secure the Most Active Rider jersey, which he duly achieved.

"I was sitting on for two kilometres after I heard I won the combativity [jersey] because I thought we were going to get caught and I was saving my energy to stay in the bunch until the finish line," Tanfield added.

"Because in 2.1 or HC races the peloton usually get it right. They had us pegged at two minutes at 25 kilometres to go and I just remember keeping that until 20 kilometres to go which is the ball park for where they want it.

"But we still had a minute and a half with 10 kilometres to go and the last five kilometres was faster than what they anticipated so we held our advantage."

One of the most impressive parts of Tanfield and the breakaway was the amount of time they had spent off the front and still maintaining a significant power output to the finish line,

"I was just thinking we can't let it drop below 50km/h and when it got to three kilometres to go I was pushing 500 plus watts. I knew that whoever was riding on the front of the bunch wasn't doing more than that so if we are then they aren’t bringing us back."

Tanfield's remarkable performance was plotted out watching the women's race earlier in the morning as he was aware he was to going to being vying for a spot in the day's breakaway, and it could come down the last final kilometres of the road.

"I saw that it was quite a long way to the finish from the last corner and it was a pretty strong headwind, I was going flat out for like 200m and everyone just died at 100m to go marker because we went so early," he said.

"It wasn’t really a sprint it was more a time trial to the line but I had my chance to get my hands in the air."

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Looking ahead, Tanfield was realistic when looking ahead to his chances of holding onto the race leader's jersey on the stage two summit finish up the Cow and Calf.

"I am one hundred per cent sure I'm getting belted, no other way around it," Tanfield said.

"If I get to the bottom still in the bunch I’ll be happy, I’ll just ball up there in my blue jersey and just soak it all in.

"I’ll do what I can for Max to get him to the bottom of the climb but there's no way I’m holding on to Greg Van Avermaet when he is whacking up there at 600 watts."

In a huge surprise, Harry Tanfield took advantage of a lack of cohesion from the peloton to become the first Briton to win a stage of the Tour de Yorkshire on stage one of the 2018 race.

Tanfield used his huge power to surge past his remaining breakaway companions, finishing with time to sit up and enjoy the victory ahead of Alistair Slater (JLT-Condor) and Mike Cuming (Madison-Genesis) in second and third place respectively.

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The win gives the 23-year-old Canyon-Eisberg rider, Tanfield, the leader's blue jersey with three seconds lead from Slater.

With the gap steady at around 30 seconds in the final five kilometres, a breakaway victory had been in the balance, but the five riders maintained their collective composure, only finessing as they entered the closing two kilometres.

Indeed, it was Tanfield who began the games, dropping off the back off the group in an effort to miss a turn. Though others did not allow that to happen, as the peloton finally closed in he found himself in the perfect place to wind up his huge gear, sprinting in the saddle before raising his arms in success.

How it happened

A tailwind on the wide roads out of Beverley ensured a frantic start, the domestic and Pro-Continental teams desperately trying to form alliances and get up the road.

After 10km a group of six managed to build a gap of 20s and while some in the peloton were unhappy, this was the day's break.

Eventually, with 30km of the 182km stage to Doncaster behind them, the six riders had established a lead of over five minutes.

Tanfield, Slater and Cuming were joined by Tom Baylis (One Pro Cycling), Axel Journiaux (Direct Energie) and Emerson Oronte (Rally), the sextet working flawlessly to maintain their advantage. Behind, as the race turned away from the North Sea coast, Sunweb and Vital Concept, riding for Bryan Coquard, came to the front.

Now battling a decent headwind, the breakaway struggled to maintain their advantage, and it finally settled at around 4-30, with Mark Cavendish's Dimension Data helping out behind.

Cuming booked his place with Tanfield on the Doncaster podium, winning an excellent scrap with Baylis for the stage's only classified climb at the Côte de Baggaby Hill, thus ensuring he would wear the mountains jersey on Friday's second stage. Immediately afterwards Tanfield himself powered off the front to win the first intermediate sprint at Pocklington, with 79km remaining.

Indeed, after bagging the points and attendant three bonus seconds, it appeared the Yorkshireman was contemplating battling on alone, though discretion proved the better part of valour, and he rejoined his fellow escapees.

With all the day's hills behind them, the six-man break ploughed on, their lead being slowly eroded as the headwind took its toll. When Slater won the second intermediate sprint at Howden, the breakaway led the bunch by 3-12.

With 37km to go, and in an effort to enliven the race in cross winds on the flat, open landscape, Sunweb suddenly upped the pace, their efforts assisted by Vital Concept. While the work was in vain, the brief period of action ate further into the breakaway's lead, the gap dropping below two minutes and the chances of a bunch sprint increased.

However, even when Frenchman Journiaux was unable to stay with the pace, the break proved more stubborn than the bunch had anticipated, and sensing the impending upset, more teams were forced to come to the front, Dimension Data adding personnel and Sky committing two of their six man team.

As the race entered its final 10km the breakaway were still more than one minute ahead, and with Vital Concept playing a cagey and ultimately fruitless game for their leader Coquard, the stage was set for a remarkable final.

Tanfield may well struggle to keep his leader's jersey after tomorrow's stage, the first summit finish in the race's four year history. The 149km race starts in Barnsley, finishing 149km later at the top of the famous Cow and Calf climb just outside Ilkley.

Results

Tour de Yorkshire 2018, stage one: Beverley - Doncaster (182km)

1. Harry Tanfield (GBr) Canyon-Eisberg in 4-08-12

2. Alistair Slater (GBr) JLT-Condor

3. Mike Cuming (GBr) Madison-Genesis

4. Emerson Oronte (USA) Rally all at same time

5. Tom Baylis (GBr) One Pro at .05

6. Max Walscheid (Ger) Sunweb

7. Bryan Coquard (Fra) Vital Concept

8. Emils Liepins (Lat) One Pro

9. Colin Joyce (USA) Rally

10. Riccardo Minali (Ita) Astana all at same time

General classification after stage one

1. Harry Tanfield (GBr) Canyon-Eisberg in 4-07-58

2. Alistair Slater (GBr) JLT-Condor, at 03s

3. Mike Cuming (GBr) Madison-Genesis, at 10s

4. Emerson Oronte (USA) Rally, at 14s

5. Tom Baylis (GBr) One Pro, at same time

6. Max Walscheid (Ger) Sunweb, at 19s

7. Bryan Coquard (Fra) Vital Concept

8. Emils Liepins (Lat) One Pro

9. Colin Joyce (USA) Rally

10. Riccardo Minali (Ita) Astana, all at same time