British Cycling chief: Tour de Yorkshire not yet worthy of fourth day

British Cycling president Bob Howden has warned that the Tour de Yorkshire still has significant work to do before it can be extended to four days of racing.

Race organisers on Friday unveiled a challenging route for the 2017 edition - the third running of a race which is a direct legacy of the 2014 Grand Depart of the Tour de France - but they were again restricted to three stages despite the enthusiastic lobbying of Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive Sir Gary Verity to expand the event.

That requires British Cycling's blessing but Howden indicated nothing was imminent.

"There are a lot of issues to work through," Howden told Press Association Sport. "We continue to talk to Gary, Gary's a good friend of mine. That dialogue is always open.

"Where it goes in the future, when the time is right nothing is off the table. But there's still a bit to do. Still a lot of talking to do."

Howden said the national governing body wants to see the race strengthen its partnerships with local authorities to ensure long-term sustainability.

"We need to get those partnerships working so we see those tangible benefits come through," he said. "Rather then it just being a moth-to-a-lightbulb scenario, we need those moths to fly around and hang around and then we can really see cycling grow.

"If we push too early and go too early on four days then it will fail to be sustainable so we've all those concerns around it.

"But ultimately we share the ambition to make the Tour de Yorkshire the best event of its type in the world and probably in terms of crowd perception it's not far off being there anyway."

Indeed, for an event that has still only been run twice the Tour, backed by Tour de France organisers ASO, has quickly carved out a niche on the global cycling calendar thanks to crowds which dwarf those seen at many long-established races on the continent - and its early success was key to Yorkshire being awarded the 2019 road world championships.

"Travelling internationally with British Cycling, we come into contact with other federations and it's amazing how the Tour de Yorkshire's reputation has grown so quickly into a must-visit event," Howden added.

"Normally that takes years. You think of the Belgian Classics where that has been built up over decades.

"The Tour de Yorkshire has really catapulted itself into the public consciousness at an early stage.

"It's got great potential going forward."

It is that early momentum which Verity is keen to capitalise on.

While the men's race has already become popular with teams and riders who enjoy bumper crowds and exposure, Verity believes the biggest potential area of expansion is the women's event - but in order to push that forward a fourth day of racing for the men is critical.

That would allow the Tour to meet its commitment to visit all four corners of the county but also use 'horseshoe' routes with the start and finish venues close together - therefore facilitating the expansion of the women's race into a multi-day event by solving the logistical challenges of having the women use the same route as the men.

Starting with this year's event and continuing in 2017, the women's race has been held over the same route used by the men on their stage two - a significant step given many other events around the world offer up significantly less exciting parcours for their women's events.

"The women's race has evolved tremendously," Verity said after unveiling a route which will see the women contest a 122km route between Tadcaster and Harrogate on April 29. "The first race (in 2015) was basically a criterium around York, but then we had a full stage last year, albeit a mostly flat route (between Otley and Doncaster) with what was a record prize fund.

"Next year we will have something a little more tasty, live on television throughout and that big prize money. But the big thing for us is to make it a two-stage race. For that we need a fourth day and then we can do something really interesting."

It is a goal Verity will not give up on, though he believes organisers have already done their part to meet British Cycling's requirements.

"We have to have permission from (British Cycling)" he said. "They can give it tomorrow, in five years' time, 10 years' time or any time they want.

"The targets they've given us, some of them are out of our control so they're not our targets.

"We've done everything we can to put on a great event."