Photos – Tour de France Parties in Leeds

It was party time Yorkshire style for the Tour de France in Leeds on Thursday night with the biggest stars of cycling on and off the stage in attendance

Photos – Tour de France Parties in Leeds

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Photos by Peloton Photos (Thomas van Bracht)

Simon Yates (left) lines up with his team for his first Tour de France presentation. There will be many more.

The teams and riders in the 2014 Tour de France were welcomed to Yorkshire at a lavish presentation in Leeds complete with live music and features in between the riders being presented to the public.

With stage 1 starting in Leeds on Saturday, it was left to the stage favourite Mark Cavendish to sum up what many felt of the presentation. â€œI am used to doing a teams’ presentation at the Tour de France but this time it was a real opening ceremony!â€

The two hour long show, billed as the biggest opening ceremony in the Tour history, fulfilled its promise with the riders looking overwhelmed by the 12,000 people facing them. After being cheered by thousands of fans during a parade in the streets of Leeds, they were welcomed in the arena. Presenters Jill Douglas and â€œthe voice of Radio-Tourâ€ SÃ©bastien Piquet introduced the twenty-two teams.

Special cheers were reserved for the Brits Mark Cavendish, Simon Yates, Geraint Thomas and of course, Chris Froome. Who knows what the reception would have been like though if Bradley Wiggins, David Millar, British Champion Peter Kennaugh or Yorkshire’s own Ben Swift had been included in their team line-ups.

Peter Sagan with his glasses and bad hair

Vincenzo Nibali’s awful looking Italian champion jersey was seen as was Peter Sagan’s fancy glasses and bad hair. Nicolas Roche never had so many people wishing him a happy birthday.

Simon Yates, a rookie with Orica-GreenEdge expressed the same kind of feelings as Geraint Thomas who discovered the Tour as the youngest rider in the race back in 2007 in London. â€œIt’s incredibleâ€, he said. â€œHere I am, starting the biggest bike race in the worldâ€¦ in my country!â€

The last man on stage was naturally the defending champion. â€œIt’s massive!â€, reacted Chris Froome. â€œI can’t say enough. It’s been unreal since I got here for the Grand DÃ©part. I’ll certainly give it all and I can guarantee the eight guys with me will do the same for the next three weeks and I hope to be on stage with the yellow jersey in Paris again.â€