Start and finish times announced for Tour de Yorkshire

The 500km cycling race will be held over three days - Friday, May 1, Saturday, May 2 and Sunday, May 3 - and comes in the wake of the publication of details of Skipton's own cycle race - The Skipton Criterium, on Thursday, July 2.

It will also include a women's race, which will be held over the York circuit on the Saturday.

Competitors will carry out four laps of a 20k circuit in the morning using the same infrastructure of the Tour de Yorkshire in the afternoon.

Gary Verity, Chief Executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, said: "We promised from the start to bring more women's racing to Yorkshire's roads."

Stage three of the Tour of Yorkshire, the Cote de Goose Eye, on Sunday May 3, will see the race pass through Sutton in Craven as riders complete the route from Wakefield to Leeds.First stage of the race is from Bridlington to Scarborough and the second runs from Selby to York.

Mr Verity said: “Confirmation of the timings and precise routes in and out of the start and finish towns and cities will help fans, spectators and businesses who can now begin to plan their weekend, where to watch and how to get the best out of the event. This is going to be an extremely exciting three days for Yorkshire”.

Thierry Gouvenou, Tour de France Sports Director said; “With 515km in total there are some excellent opportunities throughout the three days for spectators to see riders take Sprint and King of the Mountain climb points, ahead of finish lines designed to generate the kind of welcome that Yorkshire spectators gave the peloton in the Tour de France”.

Maps of the Tour de Yorkshire race starts and finishes, timings and information for spectators can be found at, letouryorkshire.com/routemaps.

Skipton Criterium is a circular route along Mill Bridge, Water Street, Coach Street and Swadford Street with the finishing straight on the Tour de France route up Skipton High Street.