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Three-day Tour de Yorkshire planned for May 1-3

Welcome to Yorkshire teams up with Tour de France organisers for new stage race

A new three-day stage race provisionally dubbed the Tour de Yorkshire will be staged in God's Own County from May 1-3 next year.

The race will be organised by tourist agency Welcome to Yorkshire and Amaury Sport Organisation, which operates the Tour de France. It will have a UCI ranking of 2.1.

Organisers say they have plans to include parts of the county that the Tour de France's  Yorkshire Grand Départ didn’t visit.

The format will see three full stages take place over the three days, and organisers intend to include a women’s race and a mass participation sportive as part of the event.

More race information is set to be announced in late 2014, with full routes expected to be unveiled in early 2015.

Talks are under way to secure worldwide coverage of the race, providing a chance to show off Yorkshire’s landscapes once again.

Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, which led the bid to bring the Tour de France to the county, said: “This new official international cycle race heralds the start of a world-class event for Yorkshire that we want to see grow over the coming years to become known the world over. We already have a huge amount of interest thanks to the Yorkshire Grand Départ, which captured the imagination of millions of people globally – and the Tour de Yorkshire will be a fitting legacy. We’re confident that come May, we’ll deliver something very special.”

Christian Prudhomme, director of the Tour de France, said: “We knew Yorkshire was gorgeous and there was a real passion for the Tour, but now we know after the unforgettable Grand Départ that people love the sport of cycling. It is now time to work together to bring a new race that will see some amazing riders and passionate crowds once again line the streets.”

Bob Howden, President of British Cycling, said: “To secure the approval of the UCI is terrific news and building on the huge success of the Grand Départ here in Yorkshire, we can drive up participation and work towards more people cycling more often. A new world-class race helps underline a commitment to cycling in all its forms.”

See www.letouryorkshire.com/tour-de-Yorkshire and follow @letouryorkshire for more information and updates.

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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11 comments

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gazza_d | 10 years ago
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Looking forward to this.

Lets have Stage 1 go from Hull north, then though the moors, taking in Rosedale Chimney, Blakey bank, then Eskdale west though Glaisdale, Castleton etc. Lots of nice short fecking steep hills.

Stage 2

Up Swaledale, then Arkengarthdale to Tan Hill. Across to Kirby Stephen & back along the Mallerstang to Hawes, then Fleet Moss. Back up Park Rash, than east back to the vale of York.

Stage 3 - West Yorkshire down over Holme Moss and give the boys a damn good trashing though the Strines and back across to York or Hull

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tomturcan | 10 years ago
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"Excellent its about time people realised there is more the the UK than London!"

Gosh, you're right. I hadn't noticed before  3 Will my iPad Retina work out there?

Avatar
joemmo replied to tomturcan | 10 years ago
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tomturcan wrote:

"Excellent its about time people realised there is more the the UK than London!"

Gosh, you're right. I hadn't noticed before  3 Will my iPad Retina work out there?

Yes but only in black and white.

Good news though, send the buggers up Blakey Bank...

Avatar
mattsccm | 10 years ago
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Great idea.
Stupid name. what is wrong with the word "of"?
Female race should be on a par, a good time to start but it won't be.

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Binky | 10 years ago
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Will it be a 'Men Only' event or will women be racing and given the same distance and ride time than the chaps rather than the dregs as of which usually happens in cycling events.

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fred22 | 10 years ago
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Excellent, and +1 to Kevin s comment

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qwerky | 10 years ago
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I am so happy about this! Planning my trip up there next year already!

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Beaufort | 10 years ago
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Another UCI ranked race in the UK is great news, especially in Yorkshire.

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kairey1964 | 10 years ago
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Excellent its about time people realised there is more the the UK than London!

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Simmo72 | 10 years ago
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Brilliant news. Lets hope it gives both domestic teams a chance to shine but also brings over some big pro tour teams. I assume it would fit in between liege and the start of the giro/romandie

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Leodis | 10 years ago
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Fantastic news, cannot wait.

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