One of the toughest stages in the Tour de Yorkshire's brief history produced its most memorable finish yet as Frenchman Stephane Rossetto soloed to a superb win before Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet sealed overall victory.

On a day which included over 3,300 metres of climbing on an imposing 189.5 kilometre route from Halifax to Leeds, Cofidis rider Rossetto went clear alone with 110 punishing kilometres still to come and, at the age of 31, earned only the third professional victory of his career.

"It was only in the last five kilometres I knew," Rossetto said through a translator. "I had the time gaps in my ears and I had confidence in my legs when the road flattened out."

But Rossetto faced an interminable wait for those flatter sections to come. He left behind 22-year-old Briton Max Stedman on the brutal climb up Park Rash barely a third of the way into the stage and crested two more categorised climbs alone to add the mountains jersey to his spoils.

"It is only the third victory of my career and it's clearly the most beautiful, on a race with more and more value and history. The crowds are amazing and it's like being on the Tour de France."

Rossetto's advantage tumbled inside the final 30 kilometres as the battle for overall victory heated up behind, and he eventually won by 34 seconds from Van Avermaet who led the chase group home to take the leader's blue jersey off the shoulders of Dane Magnus Cort Nielsen.

Van Avermaet - who won by nine seconds from Spaniard Eduard Prades Reverter of Euskadi Basque Country and 14 seconds from Dimension Data's defending champion Serge Pauwels - dedicated the victory to Andy Rihs, the BMC team owner who died at the age of 75 last month.

"I think we all had it in mind to win a race for him," he said. "Tomorrow is his funeral. He was a big boss for us, a big supporter for many years at BMC. The work the team did was incredible and we all had him in mind and it was really great I could finish it off.

"Thank you to Andy, thank you to the team. It's so great I can win this and it's great I can have Yorkshire on my palmares."

It was a fitting finish to arguably the best edition of the Tour de Yorkshire yet. Rossetto's win meant two of the four stages went to a breakaway following Harry Tanfield's opening day win in Doncaster, and the unpredictable racing was matched by the enthusiasm of the crowds.

Police said a record 2.6million people had lined the roadside over the four days - up from the 2.2m who watched three days of racing last year - and glorious weather helped produce some stunning images.

Building on the legacy of the 2014 Grand Depart of the Tour de France, cycling's world championships will come to Yorkshire next year and Sir Gary Verity is not stopping there.

The Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive confirmed talks have taken place with Javier Guillen, director of Spanish grand tour La Vuelta a Espana, about the race starting here in the next few years, while he is also confident the Tour de France will soon return.

Securing the Vuelta would be something of a coup - while the Tour and Giro d'Italia regularly move off home territory, the Vuelta has only started outside Spain on three occasions - but also make sense as the race is operated by the Amaury Sports Organisation which also organises the Tour de France and Tour de Yorkshire.

"We've been discussing it for many months, Javier was here for the presentation on Wednesday night and left on Friday," Verity said.

"He wants to do it, we want to do it. We can offer stunning backdrops and fantastic crowds, he's been able to see that for himself in the flesh."