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Tour de France 2014: Race to visit Yorkshire and the Mall

Last updated on .From the section Cyclingcomments268

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The 2014 Tour de France will feature a stage that visits the London 2012 Olympic Park and ends on the Mall after two opening stages in Yorkshire.

Leeds hosts the Grand Depart on 5 July, with the stage taking in the Yorkshire Dales before finishing in Harrogate.

Stage two of the 101st Tour starts in York and passes through Keighley and Huddersfield on the way to Sheffield.

The race last visited the UK in 2007, when London hosted the prologue and the opening stage.

"Since the resounding success of the Grand Depart in London in 2007, we were very keen to return to the United Kingdom," said Tour director Christian Prudhomme.

Britain boasts the reigning Tour de France champion, with Team Sky rider Sir Bradley Wiggins the country's first man to win the event last July.

Prudhomme added: "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.

"Yorkshire is a region of outstanding beauty, with breathtaking landscapes whose terrains offer both sprinters and attackers the opportunity to express themselves."

It will be the fourth time the Tour has visited Britain after previous visits in 1974 and 1994.

Yorkshire beat off the challenge of bids from Florence and Edinburgh to host the prestigious event.

The county has a rich cycling tradition, with Britain's first Tour stage winner Brian Robinson coming from Huddersfield.

Yorkshire's bid had the support of Team Sky's Ben Swift, double Olympic track champion Ed Clancy, Barry Hoban, winner of eight stages of the Tour, and Malcolm Elliott, the first British rider to win a points jersey in a Grand Tour.

Prolific Tour stage winner Mark Cavendish, whose mother lives in Harrogate, also backed the bid. Former Team Sky rider Cavendish, who joined Belgian team Omega Pharma QuickStep last October, has 23 Tour stage victories, the fourth-highest total of all time.

The opening stage of the 2014 Tour will take the riders north from Leeds through Otley, Ilkley and Skipton before heading into the Yorkshire Dales and ending on the Stray in Harrogate.

Stage two : York to Sheffield
Stage two of the race will start in north Yorkshire, head west before finishing in the south of the county

Stage two heads west from York towards Haworth - the village that was home to the Bronte family - and also passes through Holmfirth, the filming location for long-running BBC sitcom Last Of The Summer Wine, before reaching Sheffield.

"It's going to go up and down all the time, like in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic," stated Prudhomme.

Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, the agency behind the successful bid, added: "The routes of the Grand Depart will showcase some of Yorkshire's iconic cycling climbs and the county's stunning land and cityscapes.

"The peloton will be technically tested as they tackle some challenging terrain in what are sure to be two exhilarating days of racing in the county."

The third stage will start in Cambridge and head to London via Epping Forest and complete a circuit of the Olympic Park before finishing on the Mall, where the 2012 Olympic road race ended.

The rest of the route is yet be to revealed, however stage four will see the Tour head to France before reaching its usual conclusion, after three weeks of racing, on the Champs Elysees in Paris.

Route of the opening three stages of the 2014 Tour de France

Stage one - Saturday, 5 July

Leeds - Harewood - Otley - Ilkley - Skipton - Kettlewell - Aysgarth - Hawes - Reeth - Leyburn - Ripon - Harrogate

Stage two - Sunday, 6 July

York - Knaresborough - Silsden - Keighley - Haworth - Hebden Bridge - Elland - Huddersfield - Holmfirth - Sheffield

Stage three - Monday, 7 July

Cambridge - Epping Forest - the Olympic Park - the Mall

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268 comments

  • Comment posted by totally_bill_hicks, at 12:01 17 Jan 2013

    Most of it is in Yorkshire, but the BBC headline "Race to visit London Olympic Park and the Mall". And you wonder why those outside the M25 view the BBC as London-centric. Brilliant that both the north and south can see this wonderful race. Now let's start to rebalance all the other 'National' resources that are concentrated in the S.E

  • Comment posted by duncan_stone, at 12:04 17 Jan 2013

    Well done Yorkshire on a fantastic bid. However, why the blazes is the 'Olympic Park' dominating the headline? Wouldn't even be going there if it wasn't for the Yorkshire teams efforts surely? No doubt the Tour's visit is going to be passed off as 'legacy'. :-/

    Regardless of this metropolitan hegemony, Yorkshire will put on a great show. Can't wait!

  • Comment posted by RobD, at 12:09 17 Jan 2013

    "Tour de France 2014: Race to visit London Olympic Park and the Mall" Could the headline be any more London centric? Do you actually know where Yorkshire is?

  • Comment posted by Dan_Dover, at 12:05 17 Jan 2013

    @4.totally_bill_hicks

    "Most of it is in Yorkshire, but the BBC headline "Race to visit London Olympic Park and the Mall". And you wonder why those outside the M25 view the BBC as London-centric."

    I live in London and I agree with you. News will always be London-centric to some extent, but the headline is just crass.

  • Comment posted by recursive-t, at 12:11 17 Jan 2013

    Well done on not mentioning Yorkshire, we all know people won't click on a story unless it mentions London in the headline. London. London. News. London. BBC. London. News. London.

  • Comment posted by Tomhutch, at 12:17 17 Jan 2013

    What a ridiculous headline! The BBC should be recognising the efforts of the Yorkshire bid. The fact that the tour will visit London is a mere side note, so why has it grabbed the headline?

  • Comment posted by allycat, at 12:17 17 Jan 2013

    It is outrageous that the BBC are so London centric. The Welcome To Yorkshire team worked extremely hard to get the Tour to Britain and to Yorkshire, and the BBC have to start the story as visiting the Olympic Park and the Mall. Most of the links around the top and right side of the page reference Yorkshire. The sloppy, lazy (London based?) journalist should be re-trained.

  • Comment posted by keyboard warrior, at 12:50 17 Jan 2013

    Why does London always have to get its cut....It was a Yorkshire bid, funded by Yorkshire & yet a stage to London is part of it! Where was Yorkshire's bit of London 2012 again? Oh thats right, we were the only nation /region not to get to host any of it, but yet London just gets a slice of what we get. No wonder there is a permanent North - South divide. Cheers.

  • Comment posted by Mike, at 15:35 17 Jan 2013

    145.
    numbersixty

    "Boring...."

    Then why bother reading it, signing in and then commenting. I rather suspect your life is a permanent bore. Cheer up kidda

  • Comment posted by Oyster, at 13:16 17 Jan 2013

    This was Yorkshire's bid and it's frustrating to see the recent Olympic host city stealing some of the limelight. Why could the third stage not have taken in the county's coastal areas instead? Even the BBC's coverage is already skewed towards the London element. Same old same old.

  • Comment posted by U15349128, at 16:51 17 Jan 2013

    There are some cracking cake stops on the Yorkshire route.

    Nothing but Big Macs or KFC's on the London route.

  • Comment posted by jonmyles, at 16:58 17 Jan 2013

    I cannot help but agree. I live in London so I am not biased - but the intro to this story is appalling. The Grand Depart is in Leeds. The Grand Depart. That is important. A stage is in London. As well as no end of towns and villages in France.
    So how come the story goes in on the London stage?
    It's not just biased journalism - it is lazy.

  • Comment posted by U15026015, at 13:31 17 Jan 2013

    Day 1 is an absolutely stunning tour round the Yorkshire Dales. The only slight pity is the route to Kettlewell is via Skipton and not on the road that passes Bolton Abbey and through Burnsall. The views on that road are breathtaking.

  • Comment posted by tigger, at 13:31 17 Jan 2013

    @70 Fatlad
    Whilst your screen name probably says it all, haven't you ever heard of tourism? The brief disruption (for about 2 hours) whilst Le Tour passes through Skipton is surely worth the extra visitors that the town will receive? So you have to drive around the outside of Skipton to get to the pub - poor you.

  • Comment posted by U14797467, at 13:28 17 Jan 2013

    Hope someone builds a huge wicker man of Lance Armstrong at some point along our stage, and Wiggo can light it with a flaming torch as he blows past.

  • Comment posted by U14831126, at 18:29 17 Jan 2013

    Purchase order " 200 car clamps". delivery address top car park Haworth delivery date July 2013.

  • Comment posted by longshotkickdebucket, at 18:06 17 Jan 2013

    I'm sure all 3 stages will be great to watch and enjoyed by the vast majority.

    Much like the pre-olympics naysayers, there are a few on here determined to extract as much negativity as possible from any story. Those that want to wallow in misery can be left to it why the rest of us enjoy!

  • Comment posted by alan, at 15:07 17 Jan 2013

    It is what Yorkshire deserves , with all the medals they won in the Olympics , 12 in all ! !
    This shows the North/South divide clearly , it dazzles you when you go to Post a letter with all the Gold letter boxes .

  • Comment posted by MissFeenee, at 15:07 17 Jan 2013

    Woohoo! I live in Leeds and have signed up to be a 'Tour Maker' (aka volunteer) - I'm absolutely delighted that Leeds and the beautiful West/North Yorkshire will have the opportunity to host The Grand Depart. Fabulous news for Yorkshire and for Britian as a whole. Our patriotic partying just keeps going with all eyes on the UK for another year.

  • Comment posted by blue_chico, at 13:50 17 Jan 2013

    That’s 3 days of my 2014 holiday allowance taken care of.

    Can’t wait. Disappointed to see the typical Yorkshire attitude being displayed by @70 Fatlad. You should realise what an honour it is to have the Tour coming through your home town – not to mention the £millions it will bring in. Ignorant idiot.

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