Welcome to Yorkshire have approached the organisers of the Tour de France cycle race with the aim of bringing the opening stage “Le Grand Départ” to Yorkshire in 2016. It is hoped that this initial two-day stage will start in Leeds and form a circuit taking in the Yorkshire Dales, the City of York, the North York Moors, Scarborough and the Yorkshire Coast, Hull, and then on to Sheffield – covering around 220-230 miles in all.
Originally, the Tour was confined solely to France, but since the 1960s the race has occasionally started in other countries – and now does so on roughly alternate years.
The Tour de France is an extremely popular sporting occasion – and not just in France. A wide variety of nationalities are represented amongst the competitors and the riders are enthusiastically supported in their home countries. The race – held over three weeks and covering a distance of around two thousand miles and hill climbs equivalent to the ascent of several Mount Everests – is widely regarded as one of the most gruelling sporting events in the world.
If this plan to bring the opening stage to Yorkshire comes off (and it’s by no means certain at this stage that it will, though discussions are at an advanced stage and the signs are promising), it will be a big boost for Yorkshire tourism – with the prospect of a large increase in visitors, and masses of media coverage. This won’t be the first time that the Tour de France has started in the UK – in 2007 Le Grand Départ was held in London and Kent.
If you’d like this, you may like to read about this year’s Mountain Biking World Cup at Dalby Forest.
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