Scott Thwaites has had to bide his time to take part in the Tour de Yorkshire and even if his legs aren’t quite there yet he is planning to attack in front of friends and family.

The Dimension Data rider avoided a potential catastrophe on stage one as Magnus Cort Nielsen crashed on the finishing straight in Scarborough, bringing plenty of the peloton down with him.

Thwaites had already finished his turn for teammate Kristian Sbaragli by that point, and came home unscathed on the stage won by Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen, to leave himself in good position to take chances on stage two which goes from Tadcaster to Harrogate.

And having spent the last two years as a spectator for this race in his home county, the Burley-in-Wharfedale rider is relishing the chance to get out on the roads he knows inside out.

He said: “It’s a massive honour (to race here). I’ve been on the roadside for the last two years and seen the crowds and the atmosphere when people are riding the race so I’ve always wanted to be a part of it.

“I wanted to experience it for the whole three days on the road. It’s great this year that I’ve had the chance to take part in it and having all my friends and family cheering, particularly on the second and third stage because it’s quite local. That will be really nice.

“I grew up in Burley-in-Wharfedale, about 10km into the third stage, and I live in Alwoodley in North Leeds now so stage two is pretty much my typical training roads which will be nice and familiar.

“I’m just starting back up after a break from the Classics so I don’t really have any ambitions of getting any results overall.

“With my current condition I’m not quite there to match some of the top climbers. I just wanted to see how I went and ease into it, if there were any opportunities to go in a breakaway or try for something, I’ll see over the next couple of days.

“But the first day was about seeing how the legs were. They were not amazing. Even finishing in a big bunch sprint, a lot of people felt their legs on that last climb out of Robin Hood’s Bay.

“I don’t think my condition is quite there but at this time of the year it’s not big priority that I was peaking for so it’s just nice to get the legs going again in the race.”

Stage one was marked by a huge crash in the bunch sprint, with Orica Scott rider Nielsen going down hard in the final stages on the sea front.

It was the first time in the race’s history that the Scarborough stage had finished with a sprint, but even though it all came back together, Thwaites admitted he was feeling the strain.

He added: “It was a hard day. It was a bit easier than the last few years in this area without as many climbs so it came back together.

“On the first day everyone has a chance to take the jersey so it was a bit of a crazy sprint, especially with the technical nature down the descent through Scarborough and onto the sea front with the cobbled finish. It was definitely interesting but it was a good day.

“I helped my teammate Kristian (Sbaragli) to get good position so he could sprint and then I swung out with maybe 300 or 400 metres to go so luckily I was behind the clash.”

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