News: Le Tour baton passed to Yorkshire

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The Grand Depart baton has officially been passed to Yorkshire after the culmination of this year’s historic Tour de France.

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Press Release

Gary Verity, Chief Executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, took to the podium in Paris to huge cheers as he represented Yorkshire in picking up where Paris left off as Yorkshire prepares to host the Grand Depart next July.

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Just hours earlier, thousands of Britons including many with Yorkshire Grand Depart flags and banners, lined the Champs Elysees as Britain’s Chris Froome rode to historic victory.

The final day in Paris was beamed around the world, helping put Yorkshire on the world stage. Next year’s Grand Depart will see the county feature even more prominently as coverage will be shown in around 188 countries worldwide in millions of homes across the planet.

Early estimates predict Yorkshire’s Grand Depart could be worth around £100m to the county’s economy and around 3m spectators could line the route during two days of racing.

Yorkshire tourism also saw the highest year-on-year rise for spend in England this January and February compared to the same time last year – up 47%. This follows the announcement last December that Le Tour was coming to Yorkshire.

Gary said: “It’s been a long, exciting ride getting to this point and now the work really begins for us all. Yorkshire has been thrust into the spotlight throughout this year since the announcement of our winning bid and we now look forward to welcoming riders and fans from across the country, and indeed the world, when Le Tour rides into our county next July.

“To have a British rider win the Tour again this year is just incredible and sets us up perfectly for next year and who knows – maybe a British hat trick?”

Christian Prudhomme, Director of the Tour de France, said: “It has been a memorable 100th edition of Le Tour this year and what better way to follow a British winner than for it to begin in the UK in Yorkshire next year. We saw how passionate Yorkshire was about hosting the Grand Depart and we are confident it will be a wonderful spectacle.”

The Tour de France is the world’s largest annual sporting event and the Grand Depart – the official start of the race – will begin in Leeds, heralding two days of racing around the county on July 5 and 6, 2014.

To find out more see www.letouryorkshire.com

 

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