Field leads Yorkshire quartet as Tour race starts now for Swift, Blythe and Thwaites

Alfie Moses from Keighley races through the castle courtyard during the New Year's Day Cyclo Cross race at Ripley Castle. He has been selected to race for Great Britain at the world championships in the Czech Republic at the end of the month. (Picture: Bruce Rollinson)

Keighley’s Ian Field, who won the national cyclo-cross title in Wales last weekend, is Britain’s sole representative in the elite men’s field at the UCI Cyclo-Cross World Championships, from January 31 to February 1 in Tabor, Czech Republic.

Bradford’s Amira Mellor has been selected as one of four women to represent the nation in the elite category at the end of the month.

Greetland’s Jack Clarkson will ride in the Under-23 men’s competition while Keighley’s Alfie Moses will contest the junior men’s section.

Meanwhile, the startlist of 22 teams for the Tour de France which gets underway in Utrecht, Holland, in July has been announced, giving hope to three of the region’s riders.

Ben Swift, who contested the famous grand tour in 2011, is part of a Team Sky squad that is now an automatic selection into the race, while Sheffield’s Adam Blythe has joined Australian outfit Orica GreenEdge, who are also an established part of the race.

And Scott Thwaites - who got closer to any Yorkshire rider to making the startline in Leeds last year - has the chance again after his renamed German team Bora-Argon 18 were chosen as one of five wildcard entries.

The task for that trio over the coming months is to force their way into their respective teams’ nine-man Tour squads.