Tour of Britain set to return to Yorkshire

The Tour of Britain will make a first visit to Yorkshire since 2009 this year as the eight-day race makes its way from Aberdeen to the Isle of Wight.

Organisers have revealed the basic outline of the route for September’s race, which will again bypass London as it travels from Scotland to the south coast via Sunderland, North Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Gloucestershire and Dorset.

The return to Yorkshire will come on the fourth day of the race, September 7, with a stage that will start in Redcar before heading into the North Yorkshire Moors. The Tour of Britain has not visited the county for more than 10 years, a period in which Yorkshire became famous in cycling circles for hosting the Grand Departof the 2014 Tour de France before launching the Tour de Yorkshire as a legacy event.

However, the latter race has been cancelled in each of the past two years amid the Covid-19 pandemic, and will not take place in 2022 either with several question marks over whether the hugely popular event will ever return.

Redcar had been due to host the finish of the opening stage of the 2020 Tour de Yorkshire before its cancellation.

Tour of Britain director Mick Bennett said: “We are thrilled to be returning to North Yorkshire with the Tour of Britain and know what a warm welcome the race will receive.

“Together with our partners at North Yorkshire County Council, we are working to create a fantastic route and engage all of the communities along it, resulting in what will no doubt be a memorable stage of the Tour.”

Aberdeen had already been confirmed as the venue for the Grand Depart on September 4, a year after it hosted the final stage of the 2021 Tour, in which Wout Van Aert took victory on the day to pip Britain’s Ethan Hayter to the overall win.

From there the race will head south, with stage three to finish in Sunderland before the visit to Yorkshire a day later.

After a visit to Nottinghamshire, the race will enter new territory with a first full stage within Gloucestershire and a visit to Dorset, which has not hosted an international cycling event since the Milk Race in the 1980s. Full details of the route are to be announced in April. The Tour will run from September 4-11.