Clock ticking on bid to save Tour de Yorkshire

Businessman Robin Scott has admitted he is in a race against time to save the Tour de Yorkshire after acquiring the rights to the event.

Scott’s Silicon Dales company bought the rights among a number of Welcome To Yorkshire’s assets sold off by administrators this week, but he is yet to do more than exchange contact details with the Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO), which shares the contract for hosting the event, and has been unable to gauge their interest.

“For there to be a race in 2023, we need to have an agreement done very, very quickly,” Scott told the PA news agency. “Then 2024 will be the 10th anniversary of the Grand Depart of the Tour de France in Yorkshire and we need to do something for that, definitely.

“The timing for 2023 is super tight… The question is really whether there is any appetite within the key stakeholders and also the wider Yorkshire community to get it back on. We know there is at a local level.”

The race has not taken place since 2019 – with the 2020 and 2021 editions postponed amid the pandemic and this year’s event called off due to financial concerns. Negotiations to extend a deal valid for one more edition petered out before Welcome To Yorkshire entered administration.

Scott’s e-commerce company initially spoke to administrators in order to buy the Yorkshire.com domain but then pounced on the opportunity to add the tourism agency’s cycling assets on top.

That gives him the rights to an event which proved hugely popular in its short history – its five editions attracted crowds and coverage which many long-established races around the world could only dream of – but one which also consistently lost money.

Local councils became increasingly reluctant to make up the shortfall amid Welcome To