THE Tour de Yorkshire has been given a status upgrade by world governing body the UCI ahead of the 2019 edition.

Next year's race will come just months before Yorkshire hosts the road cycling world championships, and the UCI has chosen the moment to upgrade the popular event from 2.1 to HC status - the highest status for a multi-stage

race which is not part of the WorldTour.

"That's a great honour for us to get the upgrade to HC, that's one below WorldTour status," Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive and race organiser Sir Gary Verity said.

"To have hors categorie for our race, there are not many races in the world that in such a short space of time have gone from not existing to getting HC status. That's almost unprecedented so we're really, really pleased

about that.

"In view of the cycling reforms that are going to come up in the next few years that puts us in a really strong position."

That announcement came as organisers named the eight towns which will host either stage starts or finishes next May.

Barnsley, Bedale, Bridlington, Doncaster, Halifax, Leeds, Scarborough and Selby will all feature, with the full route to be announced on December 7.

The 2019 route will also include the town centre circuit in Harrogate, which will be the finishing circuit for every race in September's world championships.

"The full route will be announced on Friday 7 December but we felt it was important to confirm the inclusion of the Harrogate circuit, as the sport's best riders are already planning their trips to the 2019 UCI Road World Championships and the Tour de Yorkshire will be the only chance they get to sample that circuit under race conditions before then," Verity said.

The 2019 Tour de Yorkshire will take place from May 2-5.