After a presentation ceremony held at York Castle, the Tour of Yorkshire takes its real impetus tomorrow with the start of the opening stage at Bridlington. While peering eyes will focus on the stars Bradley Wiggins and Marcel Kittel, the many local riders are alsofavourites among the fans and media.
 
Following the effervescence around the start in Yorkshire two months ago, cycling is once again making headlines in the British media. In addition to the national and local radio stations that have aired numerous reports about the event, the newspapers are also giving the Yorkshire Tour pride of place and local riders are of particular interest to the dailies. The Independent has printed long articles on SKY team leader for the race, Ben Swift, who grew up in Dinnington, south of Sheffield. While he will compete in the Tour of Yorkshire, it was be the side of the road where he watched last year’s Tour de France. 

“To compete in the Tour of France on the roads where I grew up would have been incredible to imagine. But I could only experience this from the other side of the barriers. You could feel the excitement grow with the approach of the helicopter that flew above the riders”.  

Another native of Yorkshire entered; Gabriel Cullaigh doesn’t have the notoriety of some of his rivals. The young Englishman from Holmfirth will, at just 19 years of age, be a member of the Great Britain team, as he explained to the Yorkshire Post. 

“It will be an incredible experience to find myself in the peloton and to pass less than 100m from my house. It wasn’t long ago, that I walked home from school by taking Penistone Road, one of the roads on which we will compete on during the Tour. It will be an honour to ride with these great names, but I won’t let myself get dispersed”.   

The sprinter will not be the only rider from Yorkshire in the British squad, because Josh Edmondson from Leeds and Oliver Wood from Wakefield will also be at the start.
 
Kittel, not yet
After several months spent recovering from a virus and a state of latent fatigue, Marcel Kittel makes his big return on the Tour of Yorkshire. The German, who won at Harrogate at the end of the opening stage of the Tour de France in Yorkshire will not be at full-strength as his sporting director at Giant-Alpecin, Mark Reef explained to Letour.fr. 

“For the moment, it is still very hard. He is far from his peak form. But the good thing is that he feels ready to ride again and it is good news that he returns to the team. We can’t expect strong results for now. He is here to put in the kilometres, to continue to get back into shape. The objective, is the Tour of France. For the win, we’ll have to wait until July, we hope”.
 
Combativeness award, public award
For the first time on an event organized by Amaury Sport Organisation, the    Combativeness award will be awarded by the public via a social network. For the occasion, it will be the Digital Jersey sponsored by Dimension Data. In the final 30 kilometres of each stage of the Tour of Yorkshire, a jury presided by race director, Thierry Gouvenou will create a list of riders that animated the stage. This list will then be submitted to users who may vote via www.twitter.com/letouryorkshire, naming the most combative rider of the day. The following day, he will have the honour of wearing the gray Digital Jersey with his name and twitter account displayed on the side.