Team Sky are one of seven UCI WorldTour teams among the 18 set to take on the second Tour de Yorkshire.

Sky, who won the race last year through Lars-Petter Nordhaug, will be joined by BMC Racing – for whom Samuel Sanchez finished second in 2015.

Giant-Alpecin, LottoNL-Jumbo and Mark Cavendish’s Team Dimension Data all return, while Orica-GreenEDGE and Katusha make their first appearances in the race.

Britain’s only UCI ProContinental team, ONE Pro Cycling, are also on the startlist alongside Cofidis – who have helped Nacer Bouhanni to two Volta a Catalunya stage wins this week – Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise, Roompot Oranje Peloton and Direct Energie (formerly Europcar).

And the 18-team line-up is completed by five British UCI Continental teams – NFTO, Team Wiggins, Madison-Genesis, JLT-Condor and Raleigh-GAC, and a Great Britain national team.

This year’s race starts in Beverley on Friday April 29, and heads 184km to Settle on stage one. Stage two takes the peloton from Otley to Doncaster, before the final stage – on Sunday May 1 – starts in Middlesbrough and heads to the coast for via an undulating route to Scarborough.