Yorkshire's Tour de France legacy race "likely" for May 2015

Three-day, UCI-ranked Tour of Yorkshire is on the cards for the May Day weekend.

Yorkshire caravan, Tour de France 2013, stage five

Tour de France organiser ASO and Welcome To Yorkshire's plans to stage a three-day in the region next year continue to take shape, with the application to put on the event now in the hands of the UCI.

If approved, the provisionally-titled Tour of Yorkshire will be run as a UCI 2.1-ranked race (the same status that the Tour of Britain had between 2005 and 2013) and take place over the May Day Bank Holiday weekend of May 1-3.

Towns and cities in the region that missed out on welcoming this weekend's Tour de France Grand Départ are likely to welcome this legacy event; Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, has already stated that Hull will potentially host the start of stage one of the race.

Christian Prudhomme, Director of the Tour de France, said: “Alongside the public interest for cycling, highlighted by the Grand Départ, Yorkshire boasts beautiful breathtaking scenery worthy of any of the cycling season’s major events. It therefore seems perfectly natural for Welcome to Yorkshire, British Cycling and ASO to continue working together in this new land of cycling, through the Tour of Yorkshire.

"In particular, this three-day stage race will offer television viewers worldwide the opportunity to continue discovering the splendid landscapes of this English region, a journey started by the Tour de France, whose Grand Départ this year will remain its founding act.”

2014 Tour de France start list

Full rosters for all of the 2014 Tour de France teams, with race numbers

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Nick Bull is an NCTJ qualified journalist who has written for a range of titles, as well as being a freelance writer at Beat Media Group, which provides reports for the PA Media wire which is circulated to the likes of the BBC and Eurosport. His work at Cycling Weekly predominantly dealt with professional cycling, and he now holds a role as PR & Digital Manager at SweetSpot Group, which organises the Tour of Britain.