Some of the world's greatest cyclists will ride through Middlesbrough's Stewart Park on Sunday during the final leg of the event.
In honour of the tour, a sculpture showing explorer Captain James Cook emerging on wheels from a wall at his birthplace museum has been installed.
It was made by artist Keith Peacock and also features a bike chain and cogs.
Senior museum curator Phil Philo said:  "As a legacy of the Tour it seems to pose the question, had the bicycle been invented, would Cook have embraced the technology and the thrills and spills that it offered, and had the ambition to cycle farther than any man?  - we certainly think so."
The three-day cycle race began on Friday.
The navigator and explorer was born in 1728.
An artwork built out of bicycle bits has been unveiled to mark the Tour de Yorkshire passing through Teesside.