Tour - British bid for 2014/2015

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/13318 ... itain.aspx
Grand Depart - Edinburgh, proper stage finishing somewhere like Newcastle or Dumfries
Stage 2 - possible finish Manchester
Stage 3 - Wales
Stage 4 - Southern England
woooo hooooo 8)
British Cycling are backing this over the Yorkshire bid so I cant for the life of me see the latter winning out over the Britain-wide bid. Did see a tweet from Kenny Pryde saying that the Yorkshire bid was smoke and mirrors and had little secure funding behind it..
Grand Depart - Edinburgh, proper stage finishing somewhere like Newcastle or Dumfries
Stage 2 - possible finish Manchester
Stage 3 - Wales
Stage 4 - Southern England
woooo hooooo 8)
British Cycling are backing this over the Yorkshire bid so I cant for the life of me see the latter winning out over the Britain-wide bid. Did see a tweet from Kenny Pryde saying that the Yorkshire bid was smoke and mirrors and had little secure funding behind it..
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momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself.
It''d have to be tea and welsh cakes instead. Geraint Thomas would be ecstatic
Globalistation innit. Be grateful the idea of starting in the US died a death
I know, I know. Doesn't mean I'm not going to sulk about it.
And then go and see it there anyway.
Add a couple more stages in Cornwall and we can save on having a Tour of Britain....... A bit of a stupid idea I can't help thinking.
Generally i'm not a huge fan of these foreign GT starts though, the Giro start is Denmark was a waste of time, at least going from SE England to France you don't have a stupidly long transfer.
Because after all that it would still be the Tour of Britain, watched by a few hundred thousand on ITV 4 as opposed to the Tour de France, watched by a worldwide audience of millions. If you wanted to promote your region (or your product) what would you do?
I think it has a very strong chance of becoming reality purely from a financial point of view. The French are skint and thus fewer French towns want to spend the money on hosting, so ASO get smaller fees. Conversely cycling is booming here and Alex Salmond wants as much of a 2014 feel good factor as possible, so is willing to throw wads of cash to get the race here a couple of months prior to his wee referendum.
Talk over the weekend at Glasgow velodrome was that there would be a massive cycling festival in Edinburgh in the week prior to the Grand Depart. No prologue, but presentation etc on the castle esplanade which would already have the stands set up for the Military Tattoo.
Bring it on.
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the set of Corrie should provide a bit of pave
I dont disagree that something needs to be done about the disappearing British road racing scene - but it wont be done using Event Scotland & Welsh Assembly money (plus whatever UK Sport's contributing in the way of dosh) - which is what's funding the bid. Remember regions bid for Tour stages (whether its France, Britain or Timbuktu) to promote the region to a global TV audience - not going achieve that with the Tour DoonHame which would be watched by a handful of spectators along the roadside, a lot of sheep and cows from the fields, and a border collie or two - and only a slightly bigger crowd of spectators at the finish.
Do England have control of any money these days?
'If they choose Britain they have to tell us why Leeds is better than Florence.'
Anyone care to offer up advantages that the fair city of Leeds has to offer over its Italian oppo?
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/florenc ... and-depart
Oh, and some of the best cycling areas in the world, which is wot they'll see on the telly actually and not much else....
I think you'll find it's all English money.
Yorkshire brought it forward when others dropped out and its only in recent months scotland has upped its campaign.
For what its worth, the stages in Yorkshire will be superb - Sutton Bank in particular will be one hell of an atmosphere. ASO have visited and were impressed, though the second day route is still TBC. Funding is in place to stage the event. Tourism boost will be massive on the back of this years successes.