THE route for the inaugural Tour de Yorkshire from May 1-3 has been unveiled. And it is good to see that, as well as calling at York, the race will take in parts of North and East Yorkshire that last year's Tour de France didn’t reach.

The first leg will start at Bridlington and finish at Scarborough - and will take a great loop through the North York Moors along the way. Day 2 will begin in Selby and finish in York, passing through Beverley, the Wolds, Malton and Stamford Bridge. Day three, meanwhile, will move to West Yorkshire, starting in Wakefield and making a great sweep through the West Yorkshire moors before finishing at Leeds.

It will be a truly Yorkshire-wide event, in other words - and will give parts of the county that missed out last year the chance to show themselves in their best light.

More than three million people turned out to see the Yorkshire stages of the 2014Tour de France, in what the race’s director Christian Prudhomme described as the ‘grandest ever Grand Départ’. The region’s economy is thought to have benefited to the tune of well over £100 million.

The Tour de Yorkshire won’t be on that scale. But it looks to likely become a major event on the cycling calendar, putting Yorkshire at the heart of European cycling. And the Yorkshire Wolds, the moors, and the wild Yorkshire coast will look fantastic in the TV footage.

Last year, in York, there was some criticism of the city council for wasting money on hastily-conceived events like the 'Grand Départy'.

But we're confident the lessons will have been learned. The new Tour de Yorkshire promises to be a fantastic sporting and spectator event - as well a great advert for Yorkshire, and a real money-spinner for the region to boot. Roll on May 1.