Tour de Yorkshire 2019: Yorkshire’s cycling love affair set to be tested by the unblushing arrival of Team Ineos

Campaigners protesting against the controversial new sponsor of Team Sky – Ineos – are likely to distract from 'Yorkshire's greatest street party'

Chris Froome had skirted around the question all day. From the official launch of Team Ineos in a picturesque Yorkshire Dales pub on Wednesday morning, to the pre-race press conference in Leeds Civic Hall later that evening, Froome refused to be drawn on the apparent hypocrisy of a cycling team sponsored by a petrochemicals giant. In the end it was left to Mark Cavendish, sitting at the other end of the table and with no connection to Team Ineos, to say what Froome was probably thinking. “I’m just here to do my job,” Cavendish said. “I’m a bike racer. I’m not here to make political statements, I’m here to race my bike.”

After Sky pulled out of backing their all-conquering cycling team last year, Ineos stepped in, and Froome will lead the team’s new iteration at the Tour de Yorkshire which begins today in Doncaster. There are expected to be many hundreds of campaigners along the route protesting against Ineos, a company with a severely criticised environmental record which has pushed a fracking agenda in the north of England and made few friends in the process. Thousands of masks have been printed depicting Ineos’s owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, as the devil, while creative land art is expected to catch the eye of helicopter cameras above.

But Froome was in no mood to discuss the merits of fracking, instead opting for a bold strategy of burying his head in the sand. “I don’t know enough to say if the world is in danger or not,” he said of the threat of climate change. Of the campaigners he later added: “There are going to be tens of thousands of people on the road, so I’m a lot more focused on that positive energy. Those are the people I’m going to be more focused on.”

If Froome awkwardly dodged, Dave Brailsford ran headlong into it. The principal who oversaw Team Sky’s years of dominance has become accustomed to soaking up controversy and he seemed to relish the opportunity here, claiming Ineos’s step into cycling might actually be a win for the planet. Speaking in the Fountaine Inn in the village of Linton, Brailsford was asked whether the Ineos deal contradicted the team’s stance against single-use plastic. “I think it’s the opposite: if anyone can do anything about it, it’s these guys,” he insisted. “If anything, it’s a step in the right direction.”

After several mysterious controversies down the years, perhaps there was something enjoyable for Brailsford in this kind of more open rebellion: standing in front of a giant Ineos branded bus there was nothing much subtle about their new petrochemicals look, and so he embraced it. Even so, it seems extraordinarily brazen to pick Yorkshire as a starting point, where fracking stirs such a passionate response.

The race itself promises to be intriguing, with last year’s winner Greg van Avermaet returning to defend his crown against a strong field, which includes Mark Cavendish and the great German sprinter Marcel Kittel – perhaps the race’s strongest line-up since it first spawned out of the Tour de France’s visit to Yorkshire in 2014. That is partly down to the race’s increased World Tour classification this year which has enticed more top riders, as well as the fact the peloton will get a look at the same roads which will host the 2019 Road World Championships in September.

Chris Froome attends the launching of Team Ineos with general manager Dave Brailsford (REUTERS)

But it is also down to the reputation Yorkshire carries when it comes to cycling. The Tour de France’s race director Christian Prudhomme famously labelled 2014 “the grandest of Grand Departs” – a tribute to the extraordinary reception Yorkshire gave the Tour – and that cycling fever has risen year on year, to the point where locals now ask each other many months in advance what they are doing for Tour de Yorkshire week.

“You have to see it,” urges Peter Dodd, commercial director of Welcome to Yorkshire. “The crowds, they can be 10-deep. We started in Richmond last year on a Saturday, and by the end of the evening the 12 cash points in the market town of Richmond had no cash left. Garforth, we went through twice, the traders said they took two weeks’ takings in one day. Scarborough, they do independent research and it generates £12m over the weekend.

“The bike race goes past, but there’s a whole host of other activities. People come up for the weekend, bring their friends and families, they have barbecues, the bands are out. It’s just a great celebration. In essence, it’s like Yorkshire’s greatest street party for a week.” Yorkshire’s love affair with cycling is ready to be rekindled, but this time it will be severely tested by the unblushing arrival of Team Ineos.