The first stage of the second ever Tour de Yorkshire followed a route from Beverley in East Yorkshire across to Settle in North Yorkshire, a total of 184km.
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There is a ceremonial start in Beverley from 11.50am with the official start at 12pm.
The opening stage of the race which takes place on Friday, will go through Wetherby before heading over the Cote de Greenhow Hill around 30km out from the finish in Settle.
As well as the Olympic champion and 2012 Tour de France victor Sir Bradley, 38 of the riders this weekend have competed in the Tour de France. “It was simply out of this world past year – nobody was expecting that”.
More than one million spectators are expected to line the route to catch a glimpse of the cyclists over the three-day event, the biggest cycling race in the country. Bradley Wiggins was also affected, and despite quickly making his way back to the peloton he dropped out of the race with 30km to go.
And it’s that kind of publicity which organisers are hoping will add an extra boost to the area’s economic fortunes after the race has passed.
IT was raining and bitterly cold but there was a buzz in the air at Grassington in anticipation of the arrival of the Tour of Yorkshire earlier today.
A giant stick of rock, the treat recognised by many as synonymous with a trip to the Yorkshire coast, has been specially commissioned in yellow and blue, the colours associated with the Tour de Yorkshire.
The highest British finisher was Chris Lawless (JLT Condor) who fought hard to finish seventh, but the stand out British performance was by ONE Pro Cycling’s Pete Williams who won the King of the Mountains climb.
The Tour de France caravan, as spectators saw in 2014 in Yorkshire, is so vast that it takes about two hours to pass any given point on the race route.
After the race, victor Groenewegen said: “It was a very good attack from Steve Cummings but my team worked hard to bring him back, and I took the lead in the last corner which was flawless”.
The women’s race is expected to arrive in Knottingley not long before 10am and the men’s will arrive around 4pm. “I have chosen to wait until the middle of spring because there is so much racing for me this year and I want to still be firing on all cylinders in the autumn when we hopefully will be in Rio and Qatar”.
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“We are doing all we can to make sure that it is successful and that as far as possible disruption for everyone who needs to use our roads over the weekend of the April 29 to May 1 is kept to a minimum”.
