Tour question from ignorant mtber

Drfabulous0

Hi guys, I am from the MBUK forum, although I own a road bike and enjoy watching the tour I am definately more of a mtber.
After seeing this weekends stages in London I was wondering if you guys could tell me how come the opening stages were being held there rather than in France?

Big Red S

The cynical reason is that it's part of the marketing for the Olympics and to make Ken look more bike friendly.

Moose11

The tour always ventures outside France to neighbouring countries each year to showcase itself. This year England got a couple of stages, tomorrows finishes in Belgium and I believe theres later stages going through Spain.

In 1994 it also came to England and in 1998 even started in Ireland. It's just to publicise itself. The big majority of it runs in France of course.

Eurostar

The Tour has a long tradition of nipping into neighbouring countries. It first came to England in 74 (I think). The boss, Monsieur Prudhomme, said the other day that his aim is to have the start in France three years out of five.

Drfabulous0

OK, thanks for your replies, will probably drop into the other tour threads to have a read of your views as the race progresses.

laurencecp

hi Drfab, welcome to the dark side!

as others have said, the Tour tends to start outside France every other year or so... but always ends in Paris.

often the starts are to celebrate/commemorate events - this year was partially to do with the 2nd anniversary of the bombings.

L

Noodley

laurencecp wrote:

this year was partially to do with the 2nd anniversary of the bombings.
L

does that mean we can expect the depart in Paisley in a couple of years? complete with "wide" Glasgow punter starting it by challenging the previous year's yellow jersey to a square go.

afx237vi

Wasn't there talk of Quebec or New York once?! And I read recently that Qatar are hoping to get a prologue in the next couple of years (although I personally wouldn't fancy racing in the desert in the middle of July.)

Noodley

Aye there was talk of it starting in America but it was soon forgotten once someone bothered to think about the logistics and upheaval involved. I can't imagine Qatar would be any easier and certainly none too popular with the riders. But then again "money talks" - perhaps Qatar to Paris is not too far off?

moray_gub

[size=24]There is also a financial apsect to it as well, these cities/towns pay a lot of money for the privelege of hosting the grand depart. This usually consists of a prologue and at least one road stage. Dont know how much it actually costs but i think runs into the millions.

cheers
MG

Noodley

I think London paid £1.5m to host this year's Depart - or at least that was the figure quoted on ITV4. But the revenue generated must far far far excede that.

laurencecp

afx237vi wrote:

Wasn't there talk of Quebec or New York once?! And I read recently that Qatar are hoping to get a prologue in the next couple of years (although I personally wouldn't fancy racing in the desert in the middle of July.)

Qatar was quoted... in the april 1st issue if cycling news

think it then got picked up by other 'news' places.

monaco is being touted for a grand depart soon.


L

afx237vi

According to teh interweb, a flight from Doha to Paris is 7 hours, so it would still be a logistical nightmare. But then again, Qatar is a very, very, very, very, very rich country, so who knows?

Edit: Yeah, I saw the April 1st thing, but I coulda sworn I read about it more recently too.

Another edit: Here we go -

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id= ... /jun19news

"We have had a lot of bids," Prudhomme told AFP. "Rotterdam and Utrecht, Liege and Flanders, Dusseldorf, Lugano, Budapest, Florence, Monaco, the Basque country ..... even from Estonia and Qatar."

Noodley

but the Tour of Qatar MUST be the most boring cycle event of the year. :shock:

Moose11

The Quatar one was most definately an April fools joke.