ANOTHER top international sporting fixture is heading for North Yorkshire this summer.

As well as hosting the launch of the Tour de France, the county will be playing host to the British Grand Prix of Race Walking.

The event on June 8 will be held at the new cycle circuit at York Sport Village, University of York, and competitors will include Olympic, World Championship and European medalists from more than 20 countries.

It will form part of a series of events held across the continent in Switzerland, Slovakia, Portugal, Czech Republic and Lithuania, Russia and will be one of the last major warm-up events ahead of the European Athletics Championships in Zurich in August.

The event will feature a men’s and women’s 20km and a junior men’s and women’s 10km event.

Event Director Ian Richards said: “It is great that we can build on the legacy of the 2007 European Cup in Leamington Spa and last year’s Olympic events that drew crowds of 50,000 to the Mall.”

Andi Drake, head coach at the National Race Walking Centre in Leeds added: “It is fantastic for the best British walkers to be able to race against top level international competition on home soil.”