North Yorkshire
The coastal town of Scarborough offers the perfect gateway to a treasure trove of golden cycling
Yorkshire’s foray into the razzmatazz of Tour de France Grand Departs directly begat the Tour de Yorkshire race and sportive, an annual showpiece that wanders around Britain’s largest county.
The second edition, in 2016, culminated in a bruising stage through the North York Moors and ended in Scarborough. That town played host to the accompanying Tour de Yorkshire Ride, the sportive that to some extent shares roads
with its racy relation (a download to the long route can be found opposite).
Tests of form can be found on the savagely steep Reasty Road and series of climbs around Langdale End. So too the hairpin-potted road as you turn into Dalby Forest, though it’s mixed in with rolling green pastures.
Further into the Moors are classic climbs such as Rosedale Chimney, the 14 per cent, mile-long climb that has sections that make it one of the country’s steepest, and the similarly hairpin-hating Boltby Bank, on the western edges of the National Park. Scarborough, by the sea on the fringes of all this, is a fine choice to base yourself and make the most of it.