Frenchman Thomas Voeckler beat Nicholas Roche to win the final stage of the Tour de Yorkshire and claim overall victory in Scarborough.

Voeckler (Direct Energie) and Irishman Roche had broken clear of their fellow escapees on Oliver's Mount, the last of six categorised climbs on a 198km stage from Middlesbrough which provided a stern test for the peloton.

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The pair engaged in a game of cat and mouse as they headed around Scarborough Castle and along Royal Albert Drive towards the finish, but it was the veteran Voeckler who timed his move right.

This stage was always likely to decide the winner after two bunch sprints on the opening two days, and so it was that Voeckler claimed the general classification win from Team Sky's Roche, who got the same time on the day but finished six seconds back overall once bonus seconds were applied.

Bury native Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) crossed the line third on the day just ahead of Cofidis rider Anthony Turgis, although Turgis took third overall ahead of the Brit.

Huge crowds had lined a challenging route which took the peloton through the North Yorkshire Moors, with the scenes on Sutton Bank reminiscent of Alpine passes in the grand tours.

The challenging course saw several breakaway attempts throughout the stage, but nothing stuck until Roche, Yates and Steven Kruijswijk (Lotto-NL Jumbo) attacked 22km from home.

Voeckler and Turgis counter-attacked to chase them down and the five were together until Oliver's Mount gave Roche and Voeckler the chance to make their move six kilometres out.