About YVT

Yorkshire has become one of the top tourist destinations and experiencing it on two wheels is truly a unique and uplifting experience. It is world renowned for the quality of the road cycling since the visit of the Tour de France in 2014 and the 2019 World Championships.

Our cycling tours, rides and routes are designed for riders of all abilities who want to enjoy what Yorkshire has to offer. So if your preference is gentle leisure cycling with an emphasis on great café stops and glorious scenery, we have something for you. For the more serious cyclists, you can test yourself against some of the toughest climbs in the UK. This is where Lizzie Deignan and Tom Pidcock spent their youth before becoming superstars in the world of cycling!

Our focus is on providing a Yorkshire cycling experience that you wouldn’t get from just plotting the rides yourself. Our extensive local knowledge of routes, climbs, scenery and the essential café stops will add so much to your trip to Yorkshire. We’re actually really friendly as well and love meeting new people and taking them out cycling! It’s amazing how the experience of cycling with a group is so uplifting, especially when you are taking on a challenge together.

Yorkshire Velo Tours began in 2015 putting on a series of tours, rides and events in 2016 all of which received great feedback from clients, see our tripadvisor page.

The Team

The YVT team has extensive knowledge and experience of cycling in Yorkshire which means the tours will provide you with the best roads, scenery, climbs and cafe stops available. The core team are:

Charles Oxtoby

Charles is the owner of Yorkshire Velo Tours and has been organising cycle tours and trips in the UK and Europe since 2005. Charles was a founder committee member of the Ilkley Cycling Club (re) established in 2011 and has been riding the roads of the Yorkshire dales for decades.

Chris Hope

Chris has worked in the cycling industry for over 20 years, most of the time as a mechanic, including being team mechanic for the Pearl Izumi women’s team in 2015. He now runs his own successful mobile bike servicing and repairs business.

Simon Warren

Simon needs no introduction to most road cyclists. He’s the author of the ‘100 Greatest Climbs’ series of books and has appeared on numerous TV shows, including riding many Yorkshire hills for ITV’s Cycle Show. If you do one of our rides with Simon, he’ll talk with you all day long about his love for cycling up hills!

Chris Lumbard

Our (very tall) rider leader has lived and ridden his bike in these parts nearly all his life. He also loves to build high end bikes and is the fount of all knowledge on anything to do with road bikes.

Ged Millward

Ged has vast experience of cycling in Yorkshire. He has raced at the top local level and maintains his passion for cycling, clocking up an eye watering number of miles each year!

Mel Hartley

Cycling from a young age, Mel started road racing as a schoolboy progressing to a top category amateur in his early 20’s. He is now a very active club cyclist riding many of the local sportive events and the Veteran's League road races and taking any opportunity he can to ride the beautiful roads of Yorkshire and beyond.