Team Sky and BMC set for Tour de Yorkshire

Lars Petter Nordhaug (Team Sky) wins the opening stage of the Tour de Yorkshire in Scarborough in 2015. (Picture: Bruce Rollinson)

Cycling heavyweights Team Sky may have given the Tour de Yorkshire the headline act it craves, but as the countdown clock reaches 100 days to go on Wednesday, organisers are still waiting on the remaining pieces of the peloton jigsaw to fall into place.

The second staging of the Tour de Yorkshire from April 29 to May 1 has a classification of 2.1 from the governing body, the UCI. That means a peloton made up of 18 teams of eight riders, with five of the teams coming from the sport’s top tier, the world tour.

Up to press, Sir Dave Brailsford’s Sky - winners of three of the last four Tours de France - are one of just two teams from the upper echelon to confirm their participation.

Ben Hermans (BMC Racing) wins stage three of the Tour de Yorkshire from Wakefield to Leeds. (Picture: Bruce Rollinson)

United States-based BMC, who took part in last year’s inaugural staging of the Tour de France legacy race in the White Rose county, have also added the Tour de Yorkshire to their race calendar.

But the remaining three slots are yet to be filled. Dimension Date for Qhubeka - the new home of Mark Cavendish - are rumoured to be taking part following their elevation to world tour status in 2016.

Marcel Kittel’s Giant, I Am Cycling and Lotto NL Jumbo made up last year’s quota of five world tour teams, along with Sky and BMC

Tour de Yorkshire co-organisers Amaury Sports Organisation hope to reveal a full list of teams selected to ride the race by early March.

Leeds's Josh Edmondson of
NFTO Pro Cycling Team on a recce of stage two of the 2016 Tour de Yorkshire route from Otley to Doncaster, earlier this month. (Picture: Bruce Rollinson) — Leeds's Josh Edmondson of NFTO Pro Cycling Team on a recce of stage two of the 2016 Tour de Yorkshire route from Otley to Doncaster, earlier this month. (Picture: Bruce Rollinson)

The rest of the field will be made up of Pro-Continental and Continental squads, among which will be a host of British teams, including the Yorkshire-based NFTO Pro Cycling who conducted a reconnoitre of the three stages last week, and Team Wiggins, led by their Olympic gold-medal winning superstar Sir Bradley Wiggins.

A British development squad will also take its place on the start line.

The Tour de Yorkshire begins on Friday, April 29, with a route from Beverley to Settle on day one, Otley to Doncaster on a second day which also encompasses a women’s race, and Middlesbrough to Scarborough on stage three.

Lars Petter Nordhaug of Team Sky won last year’s Tour de Yorkshire.

Team Sky and BMC set for Tour de Yorkshire - but who else?