TEAM Sky’s Lars Petter Nordhaug made it a home victory of sorts at the inaugural Tour de Yorkshire – but the real winners were the race organisers.

The British outfit had planned for Yorkshire’s own Ben Swift to head their charge but he crashed out on day one after a shower caused a pile-up on the North York Moors.

Nordhaug took on the mantle and when he arrived home in Leeds in the second group of riders at the end of the third and final stage, it was enough to finish top of the general classification and take the crown.

The Norwegian, who had won stage one, lauded his team-mates but was also quick to praise the Yorkshire cycle fans who lined the roads, including through Ryedale and North Yorkshire on days one and two.

“It was for sure a really hard stage,” Nordhaug said of the concluding 167-kilometre rolling road from Wakefield to Leeds which revisited many of the key points from last summer’s Grand Depart of the Tour de France, the success of which spawned this new event.

“Ben Swift, who we were riding for before he crashed, had told us everything about the stage so we knew what was coming. We were prepared and the team was riding really strong in the front. I felt like a passenger until the last 200 metres.

“I have ridden the Tour, I have ridden in big races, but this really felt like a big stage on the Tour, the crowd was massive. I had good legs so I could really enjoy the crowds.

“It was fantastic to be wearing the leader’s jersey, with a strong Team Sky, with all the crowds.”

Nordhaug’s success had been built on his stage one victory from Bridlington to Scarborough, which went through Ryedale.

He said after that win: “With all the spectators here it’s massive and I feel like I’m riding at home riding for Sky. This is really great.”

The event cheered Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme, whose ASO group organised it as a spin-off to last year’s Grand Depart. “I’m very happy,” he said.

“So many people, huge crowds, everybody has a smile on their face, and a very interesting race thanks to the route. Yorkshire is made for cycling.”

As many as 750,000 people turned out to watch Sunday’s finale, with approximately 1.5 million spectators turning out over the three days in all, including the many thousands in Ryedale and North Yorkshire.

Those are phenomenal numbers for most races outside of the Grand Tours – namely the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España - but particularly surprising for the inaugural edition of an event.

The fans enjoyed not only another festive atmosphere, but also a fascinating race which was not decided until Nordhaug crossed the line in a pack nine seconds behind stage winner Ben Hermans, from Belgium.

This gave him an 11-second margin of victory over Hermans’ BMC Racing team-mate Samuel Sanchez and Thomas Voeckler, of Europcar.

Sir Bradley Wiggins, enjoying something of a lap of honour as he winds down his road racing career, started the final day way down in the general classification and was again well off the back as the leaders crossed the line, but he soaked up the crowd’s adulation.

The biggest smiles, though, belonged to Welcome To Yorkshire chief Gary Verity, a key figure behind both the Grand Depart and the Tour de Yorkshire, and Prudhomme, who added: “Last year Yorkshire raised the bar for the Grand Depart, and the first edition of the Tour de Yorkshire has already put the bar very high.

“The baby has been born and it is growing fast.”