Foldable Bikes Party: Tour de Yorkshire: 6 riders to watch

Wednesday, 1 May 2019

Tour de Yorkshire: 6 riders to watch

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The fifth edition of the Tour de Yorkshire (May 2-5) will star last year's winner Greg Van Avermaet (CCC Team), home hero Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data), who will start in a bid to get back to his best, and fellow sprinter Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) – who, like Cavendish, is fighting to get back up to speed.

There will be a supporting cast of some 130 riders on the roads between Doncaster and Leeds, where the race finishes after four tough road stages, but here are just a handful of some of the bigger names to keep an eye on at this year's race.

Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data)

After a promising outing at the Tour of Turkey, the Dimension Data rider returns to racing at the four-day Tour of Yorkshire. It's a race that has provided the 30-time Tour de France stage winner with little joy in the past, but this year's edition will determine if Cavendish's comeback can savour a rare two steps forwards or whether Turkey was just another precursor for a fresh setback.

In Cavendish's favour is the fact that Yorkshire's organisers have struggled to attract a top-level sprint field, while the 33-year-old arrives with a relatively robust Dimension Data squad. At some point, however, Cavendish will need to turn promising performances and top 10s into wins.

Luckily for him, Dimension Data have hardly set the world alight this year, so there's no talk of the Manxman missing out on a Tour de France slot, but a win on home turf has the potential to kick-start a renaissance.

Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin)

The last time Kittel raced the Tour de Yorkshire was back in 2015. On that occasion, he was struggling for form and bereft of confidence. Fast forward four years, and the only difference between today's version of Kittel and the 2015 incarnation is that the current slump has already stretched into a second season.