When Le Tour last hopped across the English Channel back in 2007, it generated an estimated £88m for the south-east economy over the course of two days – including around £35m worth of media coverage. This summer, the Tour de France returns to England, with Yorkshire hosting the Grande Départ before the cyclists travel south to London in this year's overseas leg.
This year's foreign section of the Tour has been an event four years in the making. The bidding process began in early 2010 – with a number of bids tabled from the likes of Berlin, Barcelona, Florence, Utrecht and Scotland – culminating with the December 2012 announcement that Yorkshire had secured the Grand Départ, worth an estimated £100m to the local economy.
“When we started bidding, we knew there was a long list of cities and countries hoping to host the Tour, but at the same time we knew Yorkshire had the cycling heritage, the cycling heroes and a proud and passionate public to create a compelling bid,” says Andrew Denton, media director of VisitYorkshire.
“We launched Back le Bid, a public campaign to secure support for Yorkshire to host the Grand Départ, and received more than 130,000 pledges of public support. That grassroots passion was vital to our bid, vital to convincing the race organisers – Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) – that Yorkshire really wanted the Tour and it continues to be vital in our preparations for the event.”
The event itself is more than just a cycling event to Yorkshire. Over the course of the three weeks of the Tour, more than 3 million people are expected to line the race route, while more than 188 countries around the world will be televising the spectacle across 121 channels with a combined audience of more than 3.5 billion people.
“It provides a wonderful advert for our great county and hopefully it will prompt people who maybe haven't visited before or not been in a while to book a break to visit us,” says Denton.
The regional effect
Not only does the Tour have an effect on the country commercially, at a local level cycling clubs are getting involved, from attending stages to assisting with the launch. While there is no direct windfall for clubs, Steve Airey, chair of Catford CC in London, near the finishing point of the UK leg, says that events such as the Tour and the London 2012 Olympics does spike interest. The challenge for many clubs is maintaining interest post-event.
“Membership is an ongoing battle for most clubs,” says Airey. “Our under-23s team has raised awareness and introduced new members, but also we've lost some older members. Previous Tours and the Olympics seemed to create larger interest for a few weeks, but the challenge is creating a legacy and getting people to commit to regular riding on a long-term basis. The Olympics in 2012 probably saw our biggest surge in attendance.”
Local clubs also get involved with the Tour on a volunteer basis. “In 2007, our members helped by providing marshalls, chaperoning the teams in London at the launch, something local clubs in Yorkshire will be getting involved with during this Tour also,” Airey adds.
During the tour stage, aspiring riders also get to meet with the professionals, with Catford’s under-23 meeting with the Orica Green Edge team. Organised by fashion designer Jeff Banks – a sponsor of the cycling club – the meeting will give future pros the chance to gain knowledge and advice from active Tour participants.
While the effect may not be as pronounced at the finishing line in London, for Yorkshire it’s a different story. The upcoming Tour has already had a huge impact on cycling clubs in the county, with memberships reportedly going through the roof and numbers swelling by as much as a quarter.
Over the past year, Ilkley cycling club has grown to become one of the UK’s largest, with more than 1,100 members. Based near the Yorkshire leg of the Tour, Ilkley is planning a number of events in conjunction with the race, including a schools liaison project to inform and educate school students and staff about the Tour de France and cycling in general.
The project aims to raise awareness and enthusiasm ahead of the event. The club is also planning daily rides into the Yorkshire Dales and a town centre criterium (short course) race based around the time of the Tour throughout July.
The region’s cycle shops are trying to cash in by hosting events, housing cycle clubs and giving shop fronts a Tour theme, while other businesses are also getting in on the act, one such example being the Risplith-based G and T’s Ice Cream shop, which has painted the entire exterior of its building with the polka dot jersey and the yellow jersey, both synonymous with the Tour. While the tale between the capital and the countryside may be different, on the whole there has been a boost over the past few years in cycling clubs affiliated with National British Cycling. Since 2011, numbers have steadily risen from around 1,570 to nearly 1,800 at present.
Building a legacy
For Yorkshire, the Tour is about creating a lasting legacy. Free access to a bike and training to use it, a regional cycle hire network and a new world-class race are the main legacy promises from race organisers for the region. Local authorities are teaming up with key partners of the Tour to push cycling as a sport, a means of transportation and a way to stay fit and healthy for the nation.
According to the latest Department for Transport figures from 2011, 13 per cent of adults in Yorkshire and the Humber ride at least once a month. The legacy plan is to increase that to 16 per cent by 2018, and 18 per cent by 2023.
“We want cycling to become the norm in our county, not just a novelty,” says Denton. “Hosting the greatest cycle race in the world will act as a springboard to success in that project.”
Cycle Yorkshire’s legacy plan represents the first of its kind as a regional initiative. It has helped bring millions of pounds into the region with Yorkshire authorities hoping further support will come from both the government and private sector to realise an ambitious 10-year plan. Tourism businesses are also reportedly seeing the effects of the Tour already, with visitors coming to ride the official race routes before the pro peloton.
An event the size of the Tour needs a sizeable amount of staff to run effectively. On that note, the organisers have taken a leaf out of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games’ book and named nearly 12,000 volunteers as Tour Makers. The volunteers operate as a welcoming force for all three UK stages, with full online training format provided. On uniform collection days that took place in May and (coming up in June), motivational training was also provided.
Tour Maker roles include wayfinders at transport hubs, route marshals, flag marshals and crossing marshals along the route. Volunteers will be allocated roles by the TDFHub2014, which is delivering the Tour Maker programme.
While the UK leg is being run by the local authorities, Société du Tour de France – a subsidiary of ASO which employs around 70 people full-time – will oversee the entire Tour. The route of the race has been decided by ASO, which makes its decision based on sporting and technical information.
ASO also supports the world of amateur cycling by organising the annual Tour de l'Avenir (Tour of the Future) on an annual basis. One of its main growth strategies focuses on the globalisation of cycling. By organising the Tours of Qatar, Oman and Beijing and helping with TV production and distribution for the Tour of California, as well as foreign prologues for the Tour de France, ASO is actively contributing to cycling's rise in popularity, not just as a sport, but also as a means of sustainable transport in cities worldwide.
Denton believes the Tour will change the mindset of Yorkshire and help it establish itself as an area that can compete on the world stage. He says: “At a very personal level I hope it will inspire a new generation of young keen cyclists to follow in the footsteps of Yorkshire’s trailblazers of British cycling – people like Brian Robinson, Barry Hoban, Vic Sutton, Beryl Burton and Malcolm Elliott, as well as the modern generation of the Downing brothers, Ben Swift, Josh Edmundson, Adam Blythe, Scott Thwaites, Ed Clancy and Lizzie Armitstead. So in 10 or 15 years time we have new champions of cycling from Yorkshire, inspired after coming to see the race at the roadside this July. That would be amazing.”
