Tour - British bid for 2014/2015

Richmond Racer

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..

Cleat Eastwood

That looks exciting but it always rains in wales in the summer - at least in yorkshire you can have a nice cup of tea and some decent fish and chips.

Richmond Racer

Cleat Eastwood wrote:

That looks exciting but it always rains in wales in the summer - at least in yorkshire you can have a nice cup of tea and some decent fish and chips.

It''d have to be tea and welsh cakes instead. Geraint Thomas would be ecstatic

greasedscotsman

Tour de France should be in France! :shock:

Richmond Racer

greasedscotsman wrote:

Tour de France should be in France! :shock:

Globalistation innit. Be grateful the idea of starting in the US died a death

bigmat

4 stages in another country is perhaps a bit much, maybe the Yorkshire bid (which I think is based on 2 stages before a hop over to Northern France) will benefit from that. Either way it would be nice to see it visit these shores again.

greasedscotsman

Richmond Racer wrote:

greasedscotsman wrote:

Tour de France should be in France! :shock:

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.

rolf_f

Richmond Racer wrote:

Grand Depart - Edinburgh, proper stage finishing somewhere like Newcastle or Dumfries
Stage 2 - possible finish Manchester
Stage 3 - Wales
Stage 4 - Southern England

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.

Richmond Racer

Well, I s'pose if the ASO like the bid but want them to trim it back by a day, they'll happily do so. One thing with the stage finishing in the South is that the whole shebang can get across the channel easily enough after the finish, so the next day doesnt have to be a rest day (assuming start in N France). It was a bit rubbish this year with the Giro starting in Denmark - the 4th day had to be a rest day just from a logisitics point of view, and a rest day that early in a GT is hardly ideal.

inkyfingers

From a purely selfish point of view I think it's great. particularly as I missed the Tour when it practically went through my back garden in 2007.

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.

lemon63

greasedscotsman wrote:

Tour de France should be in France! :shock:

I agree, why can't they (the bidders) put their effort/money into improving the Tour of Britain? eg. adding a few more stages, attract more top riders etc.

inkyfingers

lemon63 wrote:

greasedscotsman wrote:

Tour de France should be in France! :shock:

I agree, why can't they (the bidders) put their effort/money into improving the Tour of Britain? eg. adding a few more stages, attract more top riders etc.

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?

alan_a

The money appears to be coming from Scottish Government (Event Scotland) and Welsh Assembly. No English money is being put up, however UK Sport are also in the mix.

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.

edhornby

I've always thought that the royal mile would be a great stage finish... hey, a city centre finish in manchester would be great

Richmond Racer

edhornby wrote:

I've always thought that the royal mile would be a great stage finish... hey, a city centre finish in manchester would be great

the set of Corrie should provide a bit of pave

thomthom

4 boring stages for Cav. Great...

ozzzyosborn206

While it would be quite cool to have the depart in England i think the time, money and effort would be better spent improving the domestic scene, next year there is only 6 premier calendars, one UCI one day race provided Rutland goes ahead and the TOB i would much rather see the Premier calendar series increased to 10 or made UCI 1.2 status, this would bring alot of continental riders over and help develop the UK scene, the top end is booming at the moment but just below that seems to be struggling a bit and not getting noticed. Look at France and the amount of riders they have in the top 20 UCI list then how many more races they have than us.

Richmond Racer

ozzzyosborn206 wrote:

While it would be quite cool to have the depart in England i think the time, money and effort would be better spent improving the domestic scene, next year there is only 6 premier calendars, one UCI one day race provided Rutland goes ahead and the TOB i would much rather see the Premier calendar series increased to 10 or made UCI 1.2 status, this would bring alot of continental riders over and help develop the UK scene, the top end is booming at the moment but just below that seems to be struggling a bit and not getting noticed. Look at France and the amount of riders they have in the top 20 UCI list then how many more races they have than us.

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.

DF33

TDF start should be in Yorkshire 'You'll never leave'......

sbbefc

Im happy to see the tour in wales but no doubt it will exclude north wales and have a pretty average route down to cardiff.

RoadPainter

Alan A wrote:

The money appears to be coming from Scottish Government (Event Scotland) and Welsh Assembly. No English money is being put up, however UK Sport are also in the mix.

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.

If only that were true.

Do England have control of any money these days?

Richmond Racer

The city of Florence is not 'appy about the Yorkshire bid, in particular, and asks the question re the ASO:

'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

DF33

Fat birds, fish and chips cooked in lard, some of the biggest council estates in Europe, p!ss heads, puke on the paths, healthy dole queues, floods, drugs, burglars, muggers, crap weather

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....

BR 1979

Alan A wrote:

The money appears to be coming from Scottish Government (Event Scotland) and Welsh Assembly. No English money is being put up, however UK Sport are also in the mix.

*Cough*

I think you'll find it's all English money.

thefog

The scottish bid was initially planned for 2017 and the Yorkshire bid was originally targeted for 2016.

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.