Harry Tanfield determined to animate the Tour of Britain on return to Yorkshire

Five years ago, the then 22-year-old won a jersey at his home Tour de Yorkshire for being the day’s most aggressive rider, an honour voted for by the viewing public who had been captivated by the young man’s work in the breakaway.

A year on, he went even better, becoming the first male rider from the White Rose to win a stage of the Tour de Yorkshire when he powered away from his breakaway companions and lifted his arms in delight in front of the thousands of spectators in Doncaster.

The cycling world was at the feet of this young man from Great Ayton. A contract with a World Tour team the next year followed while cycling in Yorkshire was booming, with the world championships due in 2019.

Then an expenses scandal rocked the Tour de Yorkshire organisers, the pandemic hit, and the cycling bubble in the White Rose burst.

Four years on, Tanfield will ride competitively in Yorkshire again on Wednesday, when stage four of the Tour of Britain sweeps from Redcar to Helmsley.

It is the first time the Tour of Britain has visited the county since 2013, and Tanfield is back on home roads and back at the second-tier continental level with Ribble Weldtite ProCycling.

"Wow, that feels like a long time ago,” laughs Tanfield, when reminded of his halcyon Tour de Yorkshire days. “I wish the race would come back, it was such a good race, maybe it has a future as a one-day race, who knows.

"I wouldn’t say we got lucky that day in Doncaster, we planned it well in the breakaway, there was a high level of control in that race as well.

"We rode it wisely with the wind and managed the situation well, finishing in a tailwind which a lot of people didn’t anticipate. That helped keep the gap so we were fortunate with that.

"There’s not many days where you get a pan flat day in Yorkshire, but that was one of them.

"It’ll be nice racing in Yorkshire again, nice it’s going round all the local roads I’m so familiar with.

"It goes straight through my village, over a lot of my training roads and it’ll be nice to see plenty of local sport.”

Those training roads will be around the village of Great Ayton where Tanfield is from, two thirds of the way through Wednesday’s fourth stage, a 149km test from Redcar Beach to Dunscombe Park under the shadow of Helmsley Castle.

Just as he was in 2017 and 2018, Tanfield is on a team that lacks the strength in depth to battle for general classification honours, but one that can animate the race.

"In the breakaway you’re going to have a lot of smaller teams all vying for that time on the front,” says Tanfield, who is the road captain for Ribble Weldtite.

"This year there’s not the same level of teams that there has been in the past so you might get bigger breakaways with a lot of the lesser teams in there.

"With fewer bigger teams in the race you’re going to get less control in the peloton, so the breakaways might last. Add to that it being hilly and difficult, it’s a lot more open race than we’ve seen in the past.

"My job is to organise the boys, try and get us racing together, trying to organise the leadout, and just generally making sure we get the best out of everyone each day.

"It’s a lot different to what we’ll be doing in a World Tour team. We don’t have anyone capable of a top-10 in the general classification. So for us it’s a case of trying to get on the TV, trying to win a stage of some description, try and wear a jersey and win the most aggressive rider as that gets us on the podium.

"We’ll be there to animate the race and make our presence felt.”

Tanfield comes into the Tour of Britain – which starts on Sunday in Aberdeen – in good form, having earned tenth, second and tenth-place finishes over the course of four days in Holland last weekend.

He finds himself back in the second division of cycling because his most recent World Tour team – he had three teams in three years – folded at the end of last year.

"The World Tour was a great experience, just unfortunate it stopped in the way that it did with the team folding.

"I still really enjoyed it and there’s nothing I would change, I took the most from it that I could.

"If the opportunity arose to race back at World Tour level I’d take it. I do enjoy racing at the lower level though, you’re racing to win which is more fun, whereas at the top level you’re doing more of a specific job.

"Right now it’s a nice combination of both. It’s still high pressured, at any level the team expects you to do your best and deliver. It’s just different responsibilities."