Mark Cavendish didn’t quite get his wish for fine weather as he took to the start line of this year’s Tour de Yorkshire.

The Manx Missile was in high spirits as the sun shone down on his Dimension Data team bus and he mixed with fans ahead of the Grand Depart in Doncaster.

But, almost cruelly on cue, the heavens opened as the riders rolled out of the South Yorkshire market town en route to Selby.

Cavendish, who has made no secret of his love for his mother’s birth county, said: “I’m hoping not for rain! It was nice last year so we want that again this year.

“It’s always great. You know you’re always going to get a lot of people coming out in Yorkshire.

“When the Tour de France came here in 2014 it gave us a little taste and then the five years after this just gets bigger and bigger and you get thousands and thousands of people. It’s incredible and it makes me proud.

“My mother is from Yorkshire and I spent a lot of time here when I was growing up so to experience the friendliness of the Yorkshire people while I’m doing the sport that I do as a professional is pretty special.”

Cavendish is one of a number of high-profile British riders taking part in this year’s edition of the Tour de Yorkshire, all of whom will have the chance to race part of the Yorkshire 2019 World Championship course on Friday.

Organisers ASO have included the challenging Harrogate circuit as part of the 132km second stage from Barnsley to Bedale.

It’s not entirely new to Cavendish – who missed last year’s World Championships in Innsbruck as he continued his recovery from the Epstein-Barr virus – but it will be the first time he’s experienced it as part of a race peloton.

Cavendish said: “I’ve ridden it before a couple of times but not at race pace so it’ll be a bit different.”

Yorkshire Bank is an Official Partner of the Tour de Yorkshire and the ground-breaking Yorkshire Bank Bike Libraries initiative. Visit www.ybonline.co.uk/tdy