THE TOUR DE YORKSHIRE IS COMING BACK TO TOWN!

On May 2nd the Tour de Yorkshire peloton will be in Elloughton at around 3pm after leaving Doncaster just after 1pm. Then it’s flags at the ready in Walkington at 3.30pm, Westwood Pastures at 3.35pm and Beverley at 3.40pm. But the warm-up convoy reaches Walkington just before 2pm – so there’s plenty of time for the excitement to build and to get some refreshment at Walkington Methodist Chapel, one of Walkington’s 3 pubs or the cafe!

The fifth year of the Tour de Yorkshire sees the race being upgraded to HC status and the Women’s Race taking place over the Saturday and Sunday so more people can celebrate our women riders. It takes in 150 towns and villages, including, for the fourth time, Beverley, which will wave on the men as they head for the finish in Selby.

In 2018, towns and villages on the route enjoyed a 54% increase in spend. This year, Welcome to Yorkshire has published a toolkit to ensure businesses and other providers capitalize on tourists on the day as well as over the weekend as ‘cycle tourism’ grows.

The Best Dressed Competitions and Best Land Art Awards are back to honour communities and individuals that go the extra mile to celebrate the Tour de Yorkshire. These are target points for the Tour cameras (both land and air-based) to highlight the essence of the Tour. One of the Best Dressed awards is ‘Spirit of Le Tour’ which allows for communities to fully embrace the race and what the Tour de Yorkshire means to them.  Winners of the Best Dressed Village, Town and Host venue and Spirit of Le Tour are presented with an exclusive commemorative plaque to display for posterity! Hornsea won Best Dressed Town in 2018 – who will it be in 2019? At least 3 of our local villages have been granted £500 by the East Riding of Yorkshire Council to decorate themselves with yellow and blue bikes and bunting – so watch out for Middleton-in-the-Wolds, Leconfield and Beswick in the Best Dressed Village mix!

Although the Tour de Yorkshire is great for spectators, it is a celebration of cycling fitness. Confirmed men’s teams include Canyon DHB; CCC; Cofidis; Direct Energie; Euskadie-Murias; Great Britain Cycling; Hagens Berman Axeon; Madison Genesis; Roompot Charles; Rally UHC; Ribble Pro; Riwal Readynez; Team Sky under their new name Team Ineos; Katusha Alpecin; Vital Concept; Vitus Pro Cycling P/B Brother; Swift Carbon; Dimension Data and Team Wiggins Le Col. At the time of going to press, the teams have not been officially announced, Chris Froome will be riding for Team Ineos, using the race as a warm-up for the UCI Road Championships which come to Beverley in September. Keep an eye on https://letour.yorkshire.com/tour-de-yorkshire-2019/mens-teams/ for more information!

The race coincides with Polling Day for Council, Town and Parish elections but there are no road closures planned, just rolling road blocks managed by the police which last around 1 hour. So, spectators will be able to watch the race and vote without any major complications.

This will be an incredible year for cycling when the Tour de Yorkshire and the most prestigious race in the world, the Road World Championships both come to Beverley. Beverley is now well and truly on the world cycling map!