COUNTY council bosses are proposing to invest £360,000 in the Tour de Yorkshire over the next two years, in return for promises that much of the race will be on their patch.

Leaders of North Yorkshire County Council are poised to pay the race organisers to bring the peloton back to their roads, but only if at least half the race take places within its districts.

Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO) and Welcome to Yorkshire put on the bike race, and local authorities pay for it to come to their areas.

So far, the county council has paid £100,000 a year to the organisers, on top of £100,000 paid by each of the host district councils; and the county council has also funded some raceday preparations like road closures and repairs - costing a total of £100,000 over the two years the race has run.

The county council has so far used money left over from the Tour de France in 2014 to fund its involvement, but now that money has run out, leading councillors are being asked to put more funds into the event.

A report going to the council executive next week says North Yorkshire has played host to more of the race than any other local authority area, including a stage starts and finishes in Scarborough, Selby and Settle, and two thirds of the race route in 2016.

Hosting the race brings significant benefits, the report adds, and the rolling TV coverage and media attention is worth an estimated £116 million; while a university study said the 2016 race generated £60million of direct benefit to the Yorkshire economy, it adds.

North Yorkshire bosses want to offer the £100,000 a year payment to ASO - but will lower that offer if anything less than half the route is on its roads.

The report also says that Welcome to Yorkshire is looking for more commercial sponsors to take some of the financial burden off the local authorities.

Tour de Yorkshire organisers are still in talks with British Cycling over whether the 2017 edition can be extended into four days. Four host towns have already been announced - Harrogate, Selby, Halifax and Stocksbridge in Sheffield. An announcement of other host towns the full route is expected in December.