Yorkshire will host start of Tour de France 2014
Yorkshire has been chosen to host the start of the Tour de France in 2014.
It beat off worldwide competition to host the Grand D-©part, the prestigious opening few days of the iconic cycling race.
Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, the agency behind the county’s bid, said: "It will mean less than two years after hosting the Olympics the British public can look forward to another of the world’s biggest sporting events coming to the country, and I am in no doubt they will come to Yorkshire in their millions, lining the length and breadth of the route to cheer on the champions of world cycling and our home grown British heroes."
The county will host the first two days racing on the July 5 and 6 before the Tour moves south for a third stage in southern England, with a finish in London.
The host city of the Grand D-©part will be Leeds which will host a festival of cycling and the arts to coincide with the arrival of the Tour.
The last time the Tour de France came to Britain was when London hosted the Grand Depart in 2007.
Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said: "Bradley Wiggins’ historical victory last July and the enormous crowds that followed the cycling events in the streets of London during the Olympic Games encouraged us to go back earlier than we had initially planned."
VisitBritain CEO Sandie Dawe said: "It is fantastic news that the 2014 Tour de France will start in Yorkshire and that this major sporting event will be back in the UK. The beautiful countryside will be a wonderful backdrop and seen by an international audience as well as the thousands who will come to see the race.
"Cycling in the UK has received a welcome boost due to the success of team GB’s cyclists and Bradley Wiggins’s tour victory, so we hope that a Britain-wide bid will be successful in future years."
The Tour de France is one of the world’s top global sporting events attracting a TV audience of over 3.5 billion people.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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