Dutch delight for Groenewegen who secured an opening stage win

As ever the crowds came out in force as the route included the toughest stage yet - The Yorkshire Terrier from Bradford to Fox Valley.

Dimension Data's Serge Pauwels won the three-day men's race while local Otley rider Lizzie Deignan won the women's event.

Stage One

DELIGHTED Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen stormed to victory as the 2017 Tour de Yorkshire opened with the Bridlington to Scarborough route. In the process, he secured the first stage leader's jersey for the second year in succession.

The 174km route featured some tough climbs and Groenewegen seemed to be out of contention as the riders entered the final climb at Robin Hood's Bay.

However his Lotto NL team, along with Cofidis and Orica, worked together to reel the leaders in and Groenewegen pulled away from Caleb Ewan's late challenge to ensure victory.

There was an original breakaway of eight riders, one of whom, Etienne Van Empel, picked up the first mountains classification jersey with wins at Garrowby Hill and Goathland within the stage.

Van Empel, along with Conor Dunne and Perrig Quéméneur, held a 2:18 lead over the peloton with 30 kilometres remaining.

However Van Empel and Dunne were hampered by the steep climbs, while Quéméneur, despite taking some points, was eventually swamped by the peloton.

Sprinter Nacer Bouhanni, who was also the defending champion, looked to take charge of the pace for his Cofidis team, and despite originally being overtaken, they reached the front with a kilometre remaining.

A huge crash, following a fall by Orica's Magnus Cort Neilsen, saw over a dozen riders go down as the sprint for the line descended into chaos.

The remaining riders saw their charge for the finish open up and it was Groenewegen who muscled his way past Ewan and Chris Opie to win in 4:09:38.

Stage Two

HARROGATE'S uphill finish provided the perfect terrain for Frenchman Nacer Bouhanni as he powered his way to a resounding victory on stage two of the 2017 Tour de Yorkshire.

Bouhanni had finished a disappointing fourth in the opening race between Bridlington and Scarborough, but he timed his final sprint to perfection here, scorching past Jonathan Hivert with 200 metres remaining to take the win.

This second stage between Tadcaster and Harrogate was only 122km, and was expected to be a quick ride throughout, and it was three local riders that made the early move.

Yorkshiremen Connor Swift (Madison Genesis), James Gullen (JLT Condor) and Harry Tanfield (Bike Channel-Canyon), along with Sebastian Mora Vedri (Team Raleigh), established a four minute lead after a decisive breakaway.

Dylan Groenewegen led his LottoNL-Jumbo team in closing the quartet down, and a steep mountain climb over 1.7 kilometres reeled them in.

Omar Fraile (Dimension Data), Romain Guillemois (Direct Energie), Jack Pullar and Dexter Gardias (Bike Channel-Canyon), looked to have made the key move late on in the race.

They held a lead of ten seconds over the peloton deep into the finale, but Orica-Scott managed to shut them down as the finish line approached.

Dimension Data , along with Orica-Scott, looked to be in pole position, but the short descent that preceded the final kick up to the line changed matters.

Hivert thought he had seized the initiative with 500 metres to go, but Bouhanni charged home to win with a time of 2:45:51. Caleb Ewan coming home in second, exactly as he had done a day earlier in Scarborough.

Stage Three

SERGE Pauwels charged to victory on the final stage of the 2017 Tour de Yorkshire, his convincing win ensuring that he took the overall crown. He was indebted to Dimension Data teammate Omar Fraile, who offered invaluable support.

The Bradford to Sheffield route involved four tough climbs in the final 20 kilometres, but the Belgian extended his advantage to half a minute as he scaled Ewden Height and Midhopestones.

Despite his convincing lead, Pauwels was facing some challengers who were determined to snatch the win, and they attempted to breakaway from the pack to catch him.

However, Fraile performed the supporting role to perfection, marking moves and disrupting the pace constantly to ensure that none of the other riders could get close to his teammate.

Having conserved some energy, Fraile, almost cruelly, powered away from the riders that he had thwarted and joined Pauwels for the final two kilometres.

From there, victory was guaranteed, with the two teammates holding a ten second advantage over the rest of the field. However, Fraile graciously stepped aside, informing Pauwels that he would not prevent his victory.

The Belgian returned the compliment after the race saying: "Omar has been a fantastic roommate this week, he's a great guy, he basically gave me the victory today. That makes him a great person."

Jonathan Hivert (Direct Energie) won the dash for third place several seconds later, clinching third overall, one second behind Fraile and seven behind Pauwels. The Belgian also took ten bonus seconds for the stage win.

Great Britain were well represented in the top ten of the general classifications. Matthew Holmes came fifth overall, while Mark Christian and Tao Geoghegan Hart came seventh and eighth respectively.

Australian Caleb Ewan was rewarded for finishing runner-up in the opening two stages, taking first place with 24 points in the points classification. Hivert and stage one winner Dylan Groenewegen were just behind with 23 and 22 points.

Dutchman Pieter Weening stormed to victory as "King of the Mountains", racking up 14 points. Overall winner Pauwels came third with eight points.

Finally, in no small part due to Pauwels and Fraile securing a one-two in the final stage, Dimension Data coasted to a 30 second victory over BMC Racing in the team classifications, finishing with a combined time of 35:40:38.

Ladies Race

OTLEY cyclist Lizzie Deignan revealed that she used local knowledge to defy her race director as she romped to victory in the 2017 Women’s Tour de Yorkshire in Harrogate.

The former world champion attacked out of the breakaway with 13.5 kilometres left of the 122.5km stage from Tadcaster, but only after being told by her Boels-Dolmans team to sit up and wait for a sprint finish.

Deignan decided that she knew her way around Yorkshire a little better and pushed on, eventually winning by 55 seconds from a chasing pack led by Coryn Rivera of Team Sunweb.

Deignan had been out in front along with team-mate Anna van der Breggen, the Olympic and European champion, and British rider Dani King of Cylance, but a lead that had been close to two minutes had been halved with 30km to go.

“The chasing group was coming pretty close and my race director said, ‘Wait for the sprint Lizzie, you’re coming back’.

But I thought, ‘No, I’m not waiting for the sprint, I know the roads better than you and it’s not coming back’,” Deignan said.

King battled gamely to stay with her but did not have the legs after doing plenty of early work in the break, and Deignan soloed home to popular acclaim in front of huge crowds in Harrogate.

“It’s special and surreal,” she said of the welcome she received, having had enough time in hand to soak up the final kilometre. “I still can’t get my head around how many people came out to support us.”

Deignan and Van der Breggen used the only categorised climb of the day, the Cote de Lofthouse, to attack out of the peloton in a move that proved decisive.

“We knew that Lofthouse would be the breaking point in the race and we sent Amy Pieters up the road in the breakaway,” Deignan said. “Me and Anna jumped across and we knew at that point we had the race in our hands.”

Giorgia Bronzini of the British-registered Wiggle High5 team came home in third, with British national champion Hannah Barnes (Canyon SRAM) fifth and King making it home in tenth.

However, the crowd were left in little doubt about who would emerge victorious after Deignan’s late attack.

“I didn’t dare believe it until that ‘1km to go’ banner,” she said. “It was a bit of a climb up to that, and I thought I’m just getting slower and slower and they’re getting faster and faster.”

Among the crowds at the finish were Deignan’s family, with her grandma first to give her a hug behind the podium.

“They’re obviously very good,” she said with a laugh. “They get through all the security fences.”