Racing

Five things we learned from the inaugural Tour de Yorkshire

Yorkshire shines again as Lars-Petter Nordhaug bags victory

Grand Depart legacy lives on

Lars Petter Nordhaug sealed overall victory at the inaugural Tour de Yorkshire in 2015 (pic: Alex Broadway/SWpix.com)
Team Sky led the peloton on stage one and, after Ben Swift crashed out, Nordhaug seized his opportunity to shine (pic: Alex Whitehead/SWPix.com)
Erick Rowsell, pictured after winning the Tour of the Reservoir, has enjoyed a successful start to life with Madison-Genesis (pic: Alex Broadway/SWpix.com)
Thomas Voeckler finished third, his best result of the season (pic: Alex Broadway/SWpix.com)
Fans packed into Bridlington for the start of the first stage - an estimated 1.5 million fans lined the roadsides over the three days (pic: Chris Etchells/SWpix.com)
Samuel Sanchez leads the five-man break up the Cote de Robin Hood's Bay - the short, sharp climbs decimated the peloton (pic: Alex Broadway/SWpix.com)

Grand Depart legacy lives on

After the phenomenal success of last year’s Grand Depart, how could Welcome to Yorkshire and the ASO could possibly match that?

Their response was to head east, to the parts of the county the Grand Depart didn’t reach, and the public’s response was again hugely positive.

Figures given by police and race organisers state 1.5 million people lined the roadside in all for the three stages, as well as the women’s race in York on Saturday.

There was bunting aplenty and not even the British bank holiday weather or the race-ending crash of home favourite Ben Swift could deter the fans.

Not everybody embraced the race, of course – while we were in York, one motorcyclist offered some choice words and his opinions of ‘push bikes’ after getting trapped in a maze of closed roads.

But for every angry onlooker there were countless fans (new and old) once again enjoying top-level bike racing in Yorkshire.

Welcome to Yorkshire’s next step will be to bid for the World Championships – for which they need the support of British Cycling, who previously didn’t assist with the bid for the Grand Depart.

However, having proved the county has the ingredients for success, and with British Cycling inadvertently reaping the rewards of that, it would be little surprise to see the race for the rainbow jersey played out in Yorkshire in the near future.