THE towns and cities to host next year's Tour de Yorkshire have been announced.

Eight host locations for the sixth event will welcome thousands of visitors and cyclists to the region over a period of four days, from April 30 to May 3 2020.

In a Tour de Yorkshire first, Redcar will play host and will be the most northerly location the race has ever visited.

Also to host for the first time is Leyburn, although the riders received a rapturous reception when the Tour de Yorkshire passed through in 2018, just as the Tour de France did in 2014. The UCI Road World Championships also made two visits here in 2019.

Skipton will be another location to host the event. It has hosted The Tour de France, 2019 UCI Road World Championships, and three previous editions of the Tour de Yorkshire but the town has never hosted a previous stage start or finish.

The locations were revealed this morning, Friday November 22, by Welcome to Yorkshire’s Commercial Director Peter Dodd at a press conference at organisation’s headquarters in Leeds.

Peter Dodd, Commercial Director of Welcome to Yorkshire, said: “It’s always exciting to unveil the host locations for the Tour de Yorkshire and this year is no exception.

"We’re delighted Huddersfield, Leyburn, Redcar and Skipton will each be making their debuts as we’re always striving to bring our race to new parts of this great county.

“The other locations have already proven themselves as more-than-worthy recipients and we cannot wait to revisit them as well.”

Christian Prudhomme, Director of the Tour de France at the A.S.O, said: “The Tour de Yorkshire is a true success story and it is now one of the best attended and most dramatic races on the cycling calendar.

“We are delighted to be working in partnership with such a great team at Welcome to Yorkshire and I know our eight start and finish locations will put on a real show in 2020.”