Yorkshire and the Tour de France would not be two normal bedfellows you would naturally put together but unbelievably the tourist authority in the county has been involved in talks to bring the Grand Départ to Yorkshire.
Yorkshire’s tourist organisation Welcome to Yorkshire told The Guardian that several meetings had taken place with Tour organisers ASO for Yorkshire to host the start of cycling’s premier road race in 2016.
Speculative approach
Gary Verity of Welcome to Yorkshire said that from an original speculative approach to the ASO it was now hopeful that Tour de France organiser would visit Yorkshire in autumn to look at more detailed race routes that Welcome to Yorkshire has drawn up.
“We are giving them a choice of possible routes. They can start in Leeds and have two or three days based there, including going out into the Yorkshire Dales, or go from York up across the North Yorkshire Moors to Scarborough. If they want flat roads we have those, if they want iconic scenery we have plenty of that,” Gary told The Guardian.
Scotland is bidding for the Grand Départ for 2017 with Glasgow or Edinburgh as possible starts.
See also
Safer routes will encourage more to cycle
Film of Tom Simpson may be made
