Yorkshire to kick off Tour de France in 2014
January 8, 2013
I was delighted to hear that Yorkshire has won “le bid” to host The Grand Départ of the Tour de France in 2014. It is fantastic that the world’s largest annual sporting event will be coming to our region and the north of England for the first time. This has been an amazing achievement to win this event and huge credit must go to Welcome to Yorkshire, the region’s tourism body as they beat off fierce competition from Edinburgh, Barcelona, Berlin and Florence.
I will be making the case for our home city of York to be hosting one of the stages. Our historic city, with the famous backdrop of York Minster, must be a strong contender to host part of the Tour and it would be fantastic to see British riders such as Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome and Marc Cavendish racing through our great city. Marc Cavendish, whose family has Yorkshire connections, has said in support of the bid “Yorkshire is one of the most beautiful parts of not just England, but the world” and I couldn’t agree more.
The Tour will bring huge economic benefits for our great county as well as the north of England it is now down to politicians, local authorities, businesses, Government and other stakeholders to work together to maximise the wide ranging benefits that this will bring to our region.
