Leeds City Council says spending money on hosting next year’s inaugural Tour de Yorkshire will be worth it, saying they are keen to “make the most” of the momentum created by this year’s Grand Depart of the Tour de France.
Details of the first edition of the race, which will take place from 1-3 May, will be unveiled on 21 January, but the stage towns were revealed last week.
Those include York, whose council is spending £150,000 on the event, and Scarborough, which is investing £135,000, plus Bridlington, Selby, Leeds and Wakefield.
According to the Yorkshire Evening Post, including contributions from county councils in East Yorkshire and North Yorkshire, the total amount being spent on hosting the race will run into several hundred thousands of pounds.
That is on top of the £11 million that was spent by local authorities including those in York and Leeds, as well as North, South and West Yorkshire county councils, on staging the opening two days of the Tour de France in July.
Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire which is organising the race alongside ASO with the support of British Cycling, said that for local councils, putting on the new race would be “far less onerous than the Grand Depart.”
He added: “Although this isn’t the Tour de France and it is not a ‘grand tour’, this is still very significant.”
Leeds City Council’s executive member for leisure, Councillor Lucinda Yeadon, would not disclose how much it was spending, but said: “We have got to make the most of the Grand Depart and the economic benefit and the messages around getting people more active.”
Leeds hosted the build-up to the Grand Depart, including the team presentation, and was also the location of the start of Stage 1, which was won in Harrogate by Giant-Shimano’s Marcel Kittel.
Besides the men’s race, there will be a women’s race on Saturday 2 May and a sportive the following day that will include some of the roads used in the Tour de France.
Last week the city council in Sheffield, which hosted the finish of Stage 2 of July’s race, said it had decided not to bid to host the Tour de Yorkshire to give other places in the region the chance to experience top-class cycling.
8 thoughts on “Leeds City Council says money spent on Tour de Yorkshire is worth it”
“momentum created by this
“momentum created by this year’s Grand Depart”
What are they on about? Momentum in what? Leeds city council has done nothing at all cycling-related since the Grand Depart (this is normal, Leeds council has crammed 6 months’ worth of cycling facility building work into 35 years).
They ceased the build of Regent Street cycle path in the run-up to the Tour and have failed to restart it. They are currently in the process of watering down their promise to build a “superhighway” from Bradford to Leeds.
I wonder what process they imagine is being sustained in “momentum”. Perhaps they mean a boost in tourism and visits to the city?
I have to say cycling in
I have to say cycling in Leeds is terrifying at times. The council have erected caution look out for cyclists signs and signs that show in tiny detail why cycle lanes and drivers turning right in traffic can cause problems.
The main problems are that people seem to be drawn to the signs rather than the cyclists using the lane therefore increasing risk!!!.
All i want is a nice issue free ride from Headingley to Uni, is it too much to ask for??
Leeds is a complete joke.
Leeds is a complete joke. Some very nasty Pot holes and chewed up cycle lanes on many roads, combined with dangerous routes into the city centre with a free for all bus lane lottery.
Leeds City Councils commitment to cycling is without substance.
All I can see from Leeds
All I can see from Leeds Council on it’s commitment to cycling is two new bike parks that are poorly bolted to the floor. I can echo the above comments: The roads are s**** and commuting is extremely dangerous.
Take this junction on
Take this junction on Stanningley Road.
https://goo.gl/maps/Mx6V1
This is towards the end of a long decent riding in towards Leeds, a car could be at the junction and a bike fly into it but both people would have done nothing wrong. The junction should be recessed.
Fuck Leeds City Council, they
Fuck Leeds City Council, they did fuck all to improve cycling for people who want to use their bikes for transport. The City Centre is still a cluster-fuck, it looks like they best they can do is paint lanes, which is simply not good enough.
Regent Street with red cycle
Regent Street with red cycle lanes seems finished to me. I prefer the road to how the cycle lane has been done but that’s another issue.
I really hope the Yorkshire Tour takes off and becomes a regular fixture. If funding is problematical, we might have to follow the ENECO Tour model and branch out to include Lancashire. Or maybe hell will freeze over first 👿
Have to agree that the TdF
Have to agree that the TdF legacy is not trickling down to cyclist commuting in Leeds.
Even the simplest of the SuperHighway goals, the resurfacing of the canal path from Kirkstall to Shipley has been bogged down in a disagreement with Canal & River Trust about the surface materials, amid some pretty anti-cyclist narrative being put out by the Canal & River Trust (which is a bit hard to swallow when money earmarked for cycling is being used to repair the canal banks, which are pretty dilapidated along the rural stretches). The result being that even “phase 1” is now a year behind schedule and I think they are hoping we haven’t noticed that there are no details of “phase 2”..so anyones guess as to how long it will be until it is delivered.
In the meantime Leeds City Council have also had funds for infra-structure released and are upgrading at least two roundabouts on the ring road. As the Leeds Cycling Campaign have pointed out in the rush to get the money and works done, old plans with no cycling infrastructure have been “dusted off”. So a major opportunity to start piecemeal improvements has been missed. (having been knocked off at one of the roundabouts being “upgraded” the Horsforth roundabout, I can vouch that cycling infrastructure is needed) http://www.leedscyclingcampaign.co.uk/?q=node/697
Leeds and Yorkshire as a whole appear to be embracing Sports cycling and the recreational cycling tourism this promises to attract, lets hope they wake up to the need for investment for Everyday cycling to support this.