Tour de Yorkshire upgraded by UCI ahead of 2019 race

The Tour de Yorkshire has been given a status upgrade by world governing body the UCI ahead of the 2019 edition.

Next year's race will come just months before Yorkshire hosts the road cycling world championships, and the UCI has chosen the moment to upgrade the popular event from 2.1 to HC status - the highest status for a multi-stage race which is not part of the WorldTour.

"That's a great honour for us to get the upgrade to HC, that's one below WorldTour status," Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive and race organiser Sir Gary Verity said.

"To have hors categorie for our race, there are not many races in the world that in such a short space of time have gone from not existing to getting HC status. That's almost unprecedented so we're really, really pleased

about that.

"In view of the cycling reforms that are going to come up in the next few years that puts us in a really strong position."