KEIGHLEY cyclists Tom Moses and Tom Barras are among riders in the Tour de Yorkshire this weekend.

The rider list for the inaugural event was released last week and saw Oakworth rider Tom included in the JLT Condor line-up and Barras in the NFTO team.

There could yet be a third Keighley competitor as Tom’s brother Joe has been named as a reserve for JLT Condor.

Former Oakbank School student Tom expressed delight after his JLT Condor team were last month named late additions to the Tour de Yorkshire field.

He admitted he had been shocked when the original line-up did not include the British outfit, despite huge success last season.

The race, featuring some of the world’s top cyclists, promises to be extra special for Tom, with stage three passing his front door – on his 23rd birthday.

This is part of a167km route from Wakefield to Leeds that takes in Oxenhope, Haworth, Oakworth, Sutton, Kildwick, Silsden, Addingham and Ilkley.

Tom said: “It was a shock not to be (originally) selected for the race, especially after we’d been the most successful UK team internationally last year.

“I do around 70 races per year and none of them will be as special as this one. To race on the roads I train on, and have ridden since I first started, will be really special.

“It will be nice to see all my friends and family at the side of the road that don’t usually get the chance to see me race.”

Tom is not the only rider with Yorkshire connections, with Huddersfield’s double Olympic champion Ed Clancy and Doncaster’s Graham Briggs also on the JLT Condor team.

Former Olympian John Herety, who is team manager at JLT Condor, was quoted as saying their original exclusion had felt like ‘a smack in the face’.

Tom was heading for a possible top-ten finish in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games road race last summer before a puncture forced his retirement.

Olympic silver medalist Lizzie Armitstead, from Otley, was unable to sign up for the Tour de Yorkshire because she was set to be competing in Luxembourg the same weekend.

But she said: "For me, Yorkshire's the best cycling destination in the world. The scenery's beautiful and the terrain is tough, but it's training in these conditions that makes Yorkshire's cyclists such strong competitors.”

Scott Thwaites, 25, from from Burley-in-Wharfedale, is also missing out of the Tour de Yorkshire because his team, Bora-Argon 18, was not chosen.

He said: “Hopefully I will be competing in the Grand Tours (Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana) in a few years' time when I have built up more strength and experience.”