BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Yorkshire has today emerged as a candidate to host part of the 2016 Tour de France.
A formal bid has been submitted to race organisers, who could be set to visit the region and meet with tourism officials as soon as May.
Gary Verity of chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire told the House of Commons on a recent visit that the region will go head to head with the likes of Venice, Barcelona and Scotland in order to bring the opening stage to the UK. The proposed route would see much of the Yorkshire Dales, Leeds, Hull and Sheffield covered.
“We have formally submitted our bid over the weekend to bring the Tour de France to Yorkshire,” Mr Verity told politicians at the Commons. “It is the world’s biggest sporting event – 88 million people watch it on television, 5,000 people every night stay wherever the Tour goes, and that’s not including the spectators."
London and Kent previously hosted the Tour in 2007.
More on this story can be found on the Yorkshire post, or, go here to back the bid.
