Scarborough to miss out on Tour de Yorkshire stage for the first time

Scarborough Council has confirmed it did not put the borough forward as a start or finish location for the 2020 running of the race.

Scarborough’s iconic North Bay has played host to a finish of the race every year since it began in 2015, providing spectacular television images of a sprint to the end.

Council leader Cllr Steve Siddons (Lab) said the reason was down to Scarborough being chosen as the location for the national Armed Forces Day celebration in June.

He said the council was in discussions with the organiser of the race, Welcome to Yorkshire, about future years and that people in the borough would not miss out on seeing the action altogether.

Coun Siddons added: “We are delighted to have been selected to host National Armed Forces Day in 2020 in Scarborough.

“It is a huge honour and will be a fantastic event to be enjoyed by all ages across the borough.

“To deliver such an event, which will showcase our borough nationally, our resources and work must be dedicated to delivering a day that does our armed forces proud and which provides an event to be enjoyed by all in our community.

“Planning for this major event had started under the previous administration. Because of the timing of the Tour de Yorkshire race, our capacity to host both events is not possible.

Plan to bring Vuelta a Espana to Yorkshire still on the cards - but not before 2024‘Yorkshire and cycling go hand in hand’, says Tour de France legend Chris Froome“However, the race will come through the borough and will provide an opportunity for supporters to enjoy the excitement of the race at different locations. We are already in discussions with Tour De Yorkshire regarding future events.”

A spokesperson for Scarborough Borough Council said: “We are disappointed that we can’t bid for host town status next year but to ensure national Armed Forces Day is delivered to the very high standard that our team likes to achieve, we’ve had to be realistic and accept that with the resources available to us and the fact that the events fall within less than two months of each other, we need to concentrate on only one major event.

“Our decision doesn’t preclude us from having the opportunity to bid for host town status again in the future and if other parts of the borough do end up featuring in next year’s Tour de Yorkshire, we hope that local communities will continue to embrace the spirit of the race as they have done so well in the past.

“We now look forward to working with our partners, including Welcome to Yorkshire, on the delivery of a spectacular Armed Forces Day.”

Peter Dodd, commercial director at Welcome to Yorkshire, said: “We totally understand Scarborough’s decision and hope that hosting the National Armed Forces Day will be a huge success for the borough and for Yorkshire.

“We’ve received huge interest from local authorities across the county to host a stage start or finish of the 2020 Tour, and we’re looking forward to revealing who those lucky places will be on 22 November.”

The 2020 Tour de Yorkshire will be the sixth running of the event and will take place between April 30 and May 3.

The full list of host towns is set to be revealed on Friday November 22.