Tour de Yorkshire: Organisers target 2021 for delayed event

The race passed through the historic West Yorkshire village of Haworth in 2019

Tour de Yorkshire organisers have said the "sensible thing" is to look at when they can fit the event in next year.

The sixth edition of the race was set to start on Thursday in Beverley but was postponed in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

It had initially been hoped that it could be moved until later in the year.

"The longer this goes on the more likely it is that it will be next year," Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive James Mason said.

"There are too many imponderables as to when mass sporting events can take place again and they're all backing up."

Earlier this month the Tour de France was moved to the end of August because of the pandemic. However, on Tuesday, France banned all sporting events until September, casting doubt on whether the Tour can keep its rescheduled start date of 29 August.

The Tour de Yorkshire has been staged as a legacy event after the county hosted the Grand Depart for the Tour de France in 2014 and features a four-day men's race and two-day women's race.

Mason added: "We don't want to put it on just to sneak it in this year when we may face inclement weather or we risk putting the race on and undoing the spectacle it could be, when if we can do it at a more appropriate time we can really use it to celebrate a rebirth and recovery of tourism in Yorkshire.

"We have to be realistic and say time is running out for this year because we could be months away from sport happening."