Famous locations will be visited during two more days of racing
FROM THE Yorkshire Dales to the coast, cyclists will see some of the region’s most famous locations over the next two days of gruelling racing.
The start flag today will be lowered at Catterick Garrison before the race heads to Wensleydale, Leyburn, and Morton on Swale for the first intermediate sprint. Northallerton and Thirsk will then provide warm welcomes before riders are faced with the fearsome Sutton Bank climb.
Action then passes through Helmsley and Pickering in the North York Moors for a second intermediate sprint before breezing into Scarborough for the first time. Hugging the east coast, the peloton will continue on to Filey before heading inland and back towards Scarborough and onto the now-legendary finish along North Bay.
The fourth and final stage on Sunday starts at the other end of the county at The Piece Hall in Halifax. It is the first of six categorised climbs on the Côte de Hebden Bridge. The race will head up the cobbled Main Street in Haworth before dropping into Goose Eye for the next punishing ascent.
Crossing from Brontë Country into Craven, the route heads through Skipton and the next climb is looming on Barden Moor.
The action will then head into the Dales before the riders contest the first intermediate sprint in view of Kilnsey Crag.
The route continues on to Masham and then into Nidderdale in the heartland of the Yorkshire Dales before making a return to the formidable Côte de Greenhow Hill for the first time since 2016.
The undulating terrain never relents and shortly after passing through Otley the next categorised climb is on the cards at Otley Chevin.
If that wasn’t enough, the Côte de Black Hill Road must also be crested before the race sweeps into Leeds via Kirkstall Abbey and reaches its conclusion on The Headrow in the city centre – on the same spot where the Tour de France started in 2014.