Revealed: Full route for 2017 Tour de Yorkshire cycle race

The three-day race will conclude on April 30 with a 194.5-kilometre stage from Bradford to Fox Valley near Sheffield including eight categorised climbs - a total of 3,517 metres of climbing. The third edition of the race, a legacy of the 2014 Grand Depart of the Tour de France, will begin on April 28 with a 173km stage from Bridlington to Scarborough’s North Bay. A day later, the peloton will tackle a 122.5km stage from Tadcaster to Harrogate - hours after the women’s race uses the same route. The stage will finish on Parliament Street in Harrogate - the spot where Mark Cavendish crashed out of the opening stage of the 2014 Tour. Harrogate will host all of the race finishes when the road world championships come to Yorkshire in 2019, and organisers have already said that several locations on the Tour route will be undergoing a dress rehearsal for that event. Watch the route announcement as it happened, via the live feed on our Facebook page Coun Richard Cooper, leader of Harrogate Council said: “The route passes through some of the district’s most beautiful and dramatic countryside and past historic towns and villages. It will undoubtedly be a real test for the riders and a visual feast for spectators – both those lining the route and those watching the action on television.” The council has approved funding of £250,000 to cover the hosting of the event, and launched a consultation on plans to use part of the Stray as a spectator hub. The council has applied to the Secretary of State for Communities to apply for the temporary relaxation of some sections of the Stray Act to allow for the accommodation of support and media vehicles in the days preceding, during and after the event. The council said it expects that the area of the West Park Stray bordering the A61 will be used, while a small area on the corner of Oatlands Drive and Knaresborough Road may needed for overflow parking. Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive Sir Gary Verity said: “I can’t wait to see the world’s best riders tackling these routes. “We’ve worked hard to design a course which showcases Yorkshire’s stunning scenery as well as delivering a thrilling sporting event.” Scarborough is fast building a strong relationship with the Tour, having hosted a stage finish in each edition to date. It was there that French rider Thomas Voeckler pipped Team Sky’s Nicolas Roche to overall victory earlier this year. Stage one will follow a familiar approach to the spa town with the race heading through Whitby and Robin Hood’s Bay. The second stage will start on Tadcaster Bridge - due to reopen in January following damage in the Boxing Day floods last year - and follows a relatively flat route through Knaresborough, Masham and Ripon to reach Harrogate. But it is the final stage which will have riders’ attention. Borrowing from the 2014 Tour route, the race will head into the Yorkshire Dales and up the cobbled climb in Haworth before turning south to Penistone and a circuit finish around Stocksbridge featuring four categorised climbs. Following on from the success of this year’s event, the 2017 women’s race will once more mirror the second stage of the men’s event, and will again boast a £50,000 prize fund - among the biggest in the world for a women’s race. “It gives me a great sense of pride that we are leading the way in championing women’s cycling,” Verity added. “This race is one of the most lucrative in the sport, attracting the best teams and riders from across the globe, and the challenging course will provide a real test of ability in front of massive crowds.”