Yorkshire has joined Scotland, Barcelona, Venice and Berlin in formalising its bid to host part of the 2016 Tour de France.
The White Rose county has submitted its application with Tour organisers ASO, with the region’s tourist board heading up the bid.
The White Rose county has submitted its application with Tour organisers ASO, with the region’s tourist board heading up the bid."We have formally submitted our bid over the weekend to bring the Tour de France to Yorkshire," tourist board head Gary Verity told the Yorkshire Post at the launch of the ‘Yorkshire Vision’ magazine.
"It is the world’s biggest sporting event – 88 million people watch it on television, 5000 people every night stay wherever the Tour goes, and that’s not including the spectators."
Some of Britain’s top cyclists are from Yorkshire, including Olympic gold medallist Ed Clancy, Team Sky’s Ben Swift and women’s national champion Lizzie Armitstead.
Verity could not resist a dig at the closest competition Yorkshire faces, Scotland, who will separately hold a referendum on independence from the United Kingdom in 2014.
"Ironically (Scotland) by then may or may not be an independent country by the time the Tour comes here – but they’re getting English taxpayers’ money to bring the tour to Scotland.
"We’re in competition with Barcelona, with Venice, with Berlin, but we believe Yorkshire has more to offer than all of those places and we believe we’re in with a serious chance."
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