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Barnsley to Ilkley, Friday May 4th 2018 – Another historic day in the Tour de Yorkshire.

Yesterday, Harry Tanfield became the first Yorkshireman to win a stage and today Magnus Cort Nielsen of Astana Pro Team powered his way to victory at the first ever summit finish of the Tour de Yorkshire and once again the Yorkshire crowds, over 600,000 of them came out to cheer on the riders and line the whole course.

It looked to be a battle of the Belgians late on in the race as stage, and General Classification favourites, Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) and Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data) gave their all to take the victory. However, it was the Danish sprinter, Magnus Cort Nielsen (Astana Pro Team) who showed a swift turn of speed to take the win; and the overall General Classification lead.

Yesterdays surprise result had all the teams on edge today, they were marking each other and trying to keep the peloton tight. Six riders did get away from the pack just before the opening categorised climb in the form of Ben Swift (Great Britain National Team), Ian Stannard (Team Sky), Patrick Bevin (BMC), Hayden McCromick (One Pro Cycling), Laurens De Vreese (Astana) and Johannes Fröhlinger (Team Sunweb).

This group had talent, and Swift and Stannard worked very hard at the front, they weren’t allowed too much ground by the head of the peloton who had to raise the pace, this split the peloton itself and had a few riders straggling off the back.

The Cote de Blacker Hill climb was taken by De Vreese with Stannard and Bevin following. Ben Swift took the sprint.

Another break managed to form and this time, it was the team of Tom Baylis (One Pro Cycling), Garikoitz Bravo (Euskadi Basque Country-Murias), Tobyn Horton (Madison Genesis) and Stephane Rossetto (Cofidis). This group had a few navigational problems on the route, firstly being directed down a road off the course by the lead car, this lost them a whole minute over the peloton and led them to be confronted by a line of oncoming cars, luckily the cars were already stationary due the narrow county lanes and passing places. The second incident appeared to be a lapse of concentration at a fork in the road which confused the riders, and split them momentarily, partly down to the speed they were travelling. This break stayed away into the second and final sprint of the day in Scholes where Baylis took maximum points with Horton close behind and Oiarbide in third.

Rossetto did manage  break from the lead group to take a temporary 55-second lead but this was short lived as the riders started to climb the Cote de Old Pool Bank.

BMC pushed on to put Van Avermaet in position to strike late on but it was British rider Jacob Scott (One Pro Cycling) who made the first move in this highly strung game of chess and led the race around 2km on the final climb, the Cote de Cow and Calf.

Serge Pauwels tried to stay in the leaders jersey by battling it out with Greg Van Avermaet who had made his intentions clear earlier in the day, but they were both caught out by the impressive speed of puncheur Magnus Cort Nielsen, he seemed to come dancing up the road from nowhere to pass them, looking as fresh as you can while climbing the brutal Cow and Calf. It was an agonising drag to the top and the finish line, but it was a well timed and manoeuvre by the Danish rider that won him the stage and GC jersey.

The Tour de Yorkshire continues with stage 3 on Saturday.

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Doncaster, Thursday May 3rd 2018 – Home hero Harry Tanfield sealed a surprise victory as the opening stage of the Tour de Yorkshire reached a rip-roaring conclusion in Doncaster. The 23 year old from Great Ayton worked his way into the day’s main breakaway and then played a pivotal role as the escapees evaded the peloton on the 182km trek from Beverley. With 300 metres to go Tanfield turned on the afterburners and edged past Alistair Slater (JLT Condor) to become the first-ever Yorkshireman to win a stage of the race.

Huge crowds turned out in Beverley to see the start of the fourth edition and clement conditions meant the county was at its magnificent best as the riders wound their way through the Yorkshire Wolds and then headed south towards Doncaster for that dramatic finish along Bennetthorpe. Banners, bunting and a whole host of ingenious land art provided a brilliant backdrop as the riders sped across the largely flat parcours, and the 450,000 roadside spectators set a record figure for the first stage of the race.

The breakaway group containing Tanfield formed early in the stage and Michael Cuming (Madison Genesis) was the first rider over the Côte de Baggaby Hill to earn himself a spell in the best climber’s jersey sponsored by Virgin Trains.

Tanfield then passed Cuming on the descent which followed to take maximum points in the first intermediate sprint in Pocklington, while Slater took the next of those points in Howden.

With those in the bag the breakaway reformed and a live Twitter vote saw Tanfield awarded the most active jersey sponsored by Dimension Data before the escapees survived to battle it out for the victory.

Tanfield emerged triumphant and the bonus seconds awarded for that win meant he opened up a three-second advantage over Slater in the General Classification. The Canyon Eisberg rider will now wear the blue leader’s jersey sponsored by Yorkshire Bank Bike Libraries for the second stage. He also tops the Best Sprinter Classification sponsored by Asda.

Earlier in the day, Wiggle High5 rider Kirsten Wild won the first stage of the Asda Tour de Yorkshire Women’s Race. That too, came down to a bunch sprint and Wild proved the fastest finisher, outpacing Amalie Dideriksen (Boels-Dolmans) and Alice Barnes (Canyon Sram Racing) to take control of the blue jersey. It was the second time in succession Wild had triumphed on Bennetthorpe following her Asda Tour de Yorkshire Women’s Race success in 2016. Click here to read the full race report and listen to race interviews.

1          Harry Tanfield (GBR) Canyon Eisberg     4:08:12
2          Alistair Slater (GBR) JLT Condor
3          Michael Cuming (GBR) Madison Genesis

The Men’s Tour de Yorkshire continues with stage 2 on Friday afternoon.