Tour de Yorkshire 'still has work to do' before fourth day is added

The 2017 Tour de Yorkshire will start in Bridlington on 28 April and finish in Sheffield two days later

Tour de Yorkshire organisers still have a lot of work to do before the race can be extended to four days, says British Cycling president Bob Howden.

British Cycling has rejected an application to add a fourth day despite the aims of Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive Sir Gary Verity to expand.

The route for the third edition of the race in 2017 was unveiled on Friday.

"When the time is right nothing is off the table, but there's still a bit to do," said Howden.

"Ultimately we share the ambition to make the Tour de Yorkshire the best event of its type in the world and probably in terms of crowd perception it's not far off being there anyway."

More than a million spectators turned out to watch the 2016 race, with Yorkshire also winning the bid to stage the 2019 Road World Championships.

"It's amazing how the Tour de Yorkshire's reputation has grown so quickly into a must-visit event," added Howden.

"Normally that takes years. You think of the Belgian Classics where that has been built up over decades.

"The Tour de Yorkshire has really catapulted itself into the public consciousness at an early stage. It's got great potential."