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news
Crowds at the 2007 Tour de France in London (copyright jtlondon:Flickr)Government confirms £10 million contribution to 2014 Tour de France Grand Départ
Sports Minister Hugh Robertson has announced today that government will provide up to £10 million in funding to help host the opening stages of the 2014 Tour de France in Yorkshire and the third stage from Cambridge to London.
Mr Robertson said: “The Tour de France is the biggest event in cycling and for this country to host the Grand Départ is a real honour. We want to help deliver a world class event that boosts all the local economies where the race will pass through, and encourage more people to get involved in cycling.”
The total cost of the UK leg of next year’s Tour de France will be £21 million, according to a Commons answer from Mr Robertson on June 20.
The 2014 Tour de France will start in Leeds on Sunday July 5 with a stage that pops into the Yorkshire Dales and finishes in Harrogate. The following day riders set off from York and head into the Pennines for the hilliest of the three stages that ends in Sheffield. They then transfer to Cambridge for the start of stage three, which will finish in London on The Mall.
Mr Robertson also announced the creation of a new organising committee, TDF 2014 Ltd, to deliver the three stages of the Grand Départ.
TDF 2014 Ltd will have a board that includes representation from Yorkshire and Cambridge local authorities, as well as British Cycling, Transport for London and UK Sport. The board will be chaired by Sir Rodney Walker, the former chair of UK Sport and will also include Leader of Leeds City Council, Councillor Keith Wakefield and Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive Gary Verity.
The last time the UK hosted the start of the Tour de France was in 2007, when the race kicked off with a prologue in Westminster, and then made its way to Canterbury.
Those two stages are reported to have cost between £5 million and £10.5 million depending on the source. Transport for London’s Grand Départ 2007 Research Summary mentions an organisational spend of £5 million. Ealing Conservative councillor Phil Taylor says Transport for London eventually told him the figure was £10.5 million after some badgering. Transport for London claimed some £73 million in economic benefit from the 2007 Grand Départ.
The higher cost of the 2014 Grand Départ will come from the greater scale of the event - three stages instead of two - and the greater complexity of three full road closures rather than 2007’s city centre time trial loop and London to Canterbury dash.
The six years since 2007 have seen a huge increase in the profile and popularity of cycling, with two British Tour de France winners and huge Olympic medal hauls at Beijing and London. It’s conceivable that this has emboldened organisers to plan and budget for what Gary Verity has called “the very Grandest of Grand Départs”.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
Latest Comments
- BBB 2 hours 13 min ago
Inhumane system that now will be getting even worse.
- Bungle_52 5 hours 37 min ago
In case anyone missed it in yesterdays blog here are the two pevious articles. The second one contains the testimony from the driver....
- David9694 5 hours 45 min ago
The old role was appointed at the Mayor's pleasure; is in addition to the permanent staff of the Combined Authority. I'm not sure if Adam was an...
- WillPage 7 hours 11 min ago
Nothing says "welcoming environment" like uniformed thugs, umm I mean "security patrols " roaming the area.
- galibiervelo 8 hours 29 min ago
That is class news. Super bikes and vision. Bet there will be no stand at the Taiwan bike show next year! Big luck to all the team
- Destroyer666 9 hours 11 min ago
Pretty clearly stated several times in the text that the issue was not related just to his son. And besides, everybody watching the races could see...
- Rendel Harris 9 hours 27 min ago
All Fizik and Selle Italia saddles (though not all their other products) are made in Italy I believe, and their 3D printed models definitely are.
- chrisonabike 9 hours 53 min ago
If you're not on the road with a car, I bet its driver is much less likely to swerve into your space *. Because you're not "in the way"! (Any...
- mdavidford 10 hours 9 min ago
The problem with this argument, though, is that it's just not true....
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33 comments
I wonder which big organisations are going to win the contracting bids and if we learned the lesson from the Olympic budget balloning and under-delivery.
So far i have seen no mention of the days leading into the Grand Depart ! I arrived in Corsica , tuesday night , to find that considerable resources had already arrived ! Wednesday morning i had breakfast on the Ferry Ship serving as HQ for " Le Tour ". Most of the remaining Racers arrived that day so enjoyed riding with Damiano then Klodie & Jensie in the afternoon .
Thursday after riding with a bunch of teams in the morning, i had a brief ride with Sir David & Kennison before catching up with some other commitments prior to the presentation . Riding to & from the pres. with Froome & co, then with Andy Schleck , etc . Georgethecyclist.blogspot will no doubt serve as confirmation of these events .
So we have nearly a week of expense that the fans could enjoy , if they made the effort to be in the area . i would be one of the few that needs little in the way of accom , cafes & other entertainment to fill their day . As a rule , the average " fan " will be needing transport and perhaps even " bike hire " so the GBP21m , whilst looking spectacular , will result in a much greater return , if the " Welcome to Yorkshire personnel " do even an average job . Already working on their merchandising plans , i hope i see those samples soon .
Bitching about paying out to reap a benefit , smacks of poor understanding of how beneficial ASO can be to any area they choose to USE ! Yes , they DO USE ! Be sure that they have already pickpocketed ALL & SUNDRY , and they have already declared WAR on a WomenS Race ! No benefit to them , so why lose sleep ? Even at 100th Event, they only invited ONE PARA Athlete , Jiri Jarek . You would think he would have tweeted about his participation , perhaps he has said something in Czech that i missed , but i suspect he was less than impressed by the way they treated him .
Gary & Peter of " Welcome Yorkshire " would do much more than ASO will allow , but CONTRACTS are specific , so SSDD will be the ASO motto !
"UP to £10 million....."
So what's the story on the weasel word then....
Rumpo, i asked you what it was because a: i didnt know and b: its called communication and i was interested in what you had to say hence why i asked and c: it's a forum where you can ask these sort of things.
Yes, i could have googled it but despite that you have to be pedantic. No wonder everyone says people from london have an attitude problem and i can see why now.
Finally why do we need a stage into London, people say its for ease of transfer but look at the Giro next year. They are travelling further from Dublin but its not a problem there is it.
I'm not being pedantic. I told you something you wanted to know. Did you thank me? No. You just said you had no interest. And you have the audacity to talk about the attitude problem of Londoners.
Gkam, you know Yorkshire won BECAUSE they have included london in one of the stages, although that will never be admitted.
In the end Edinburgh was the best route but there's nothing we can do about it now except enjoy it when it comes to Yorkshire.
Rumpo, sorry but i have no interest in the London develpment agency and certainly dont talk about it, probably like you never discuss One North East, also now defunct thanks to the govt.
Stumpy. You asked what the LDA was and I took the trouble to tell you. Next time use Google.
Having restored my usual genial composure, it's now time for a wild fantasy. Why not have a race using the Prologue and stages of the Scottish bid, going south to link up with the Yorkshire Grand Depart and route. Throw in an ITT along the way, and finish off with a London circuit while the Tdf is recovering from the transfer with an easy stage, and you have a Women's nine stage road race. (I did say it was a fantasy).
So, I'll be the one to raise it AGAIN....
You know Edinburgh's bid was all ready and they had funding sorted, not just thrown together and then having to find funding.
I find it obnoxious that the bid are taking money from the government because they should have had it in place before their bid was accepted by the ASO.
Disgusted that the government even offered to chip in HALF the fecking money.
Everyone was moaning about Edinburgh's route. But at least MORE people would have seen it, It was also NOT going to London.....
Would you like chips with that?
I live in Sheffield, I don't have any spare rooms for that weekend at all! We've already got everyone and their dog (who will be kept securely on a lead) coming to Sheffield to watch the stage past our house.
So that's about seven people extra in my house alone, eating, drinking, enjoying themselves in Sheffield and generally have a great time.
Considering how much they spend, and how much Sheffield is struggling, that is £10 million well spent! But I would say that, wouldn't I?
It's lovely for somewhere outside of London to have a little of the attention for once
i wonder how much central government would of stumped up if the tour wasn't going to london?
Sorry, GLA and LDA ?
I'm showing real ignorance here but how did they and ultimately you pay more ?
Again it would be interesting to know because its not something i've heard mention before.
EDIT - Greater London Authority - GLA. Sorry !
Just saw the edit! The (now defunct) London Development Agency was the development arm of the GLA, which since 2012 has taken over most of its functions.
I love the "its not something I've heard mention before" Most of the people I know talk of little else. The figures I gave you are from last summer (ODA, quoted in The Guardian 26/7/2012), and unlikely to represent the true cost. And the meter's still running on maintenance and protection of the Olympic sites until they are sold.
The Olympics is a money making project though, just look at all the merchandise, spin offs, sponsorship and not to mention the ridiculous cost of tickets.
In that respect it worse than the Tour as you dont have to pay for tickets in the tour.
Not meaning to be funny but how did you, due to living in London, pay more than any other tax payer ?
It's an honest question mate because i honestly dont know.
As well as contributing taxes to the 6.25 Billion Central Government funding for the Olympics, London Taxpayers, via the GLA and LDA, contributed another 0.88 Billion.
Cos the tourism benefits will be felt far more widely than just Yorkshire. People flying into Gatwick/Heathrow/Edinburgh/Birmingham/Manchester, travelling to Yorkshire, maybe a stop off somewhere else - after all I've been to France to see the Tour but I don't pop over, watch it for a day and come back, I fit it in as part of a week long holiday.
And besides, the Tour isn't just Yorkshire, the whole "Grand Depart" thing encompasses three days, 2 in Yorkshire then Cambridge to London.
Central Government offers a whole host of regional grants etc, it's still got a remit to support the entire UK.
Rumpo Kids' Glyndebourne comparison doesn't really make sense as that is a ticketed event with weekend tickets at circa £200, its a different business model. You could say the same about a Stones gig or any other ticketed event that makes revenue. Watching a road race is free, but the benefit is to local business as a whole and not just the promoter. Anyway Opera as an art form is heavily publicly subsidised and probably wouldn't survive commercially if it wasn't. Feel like I'm straying from the point a bit.....can't wait for grand depart next year.
Don't get me wrong. I'm looking forward to the tour myself. As you say the benefit is to the promoter and LOCAL business. So why the subsidy from Central Government?
we don't live in a free market, local government is funded by central government, council tax is a pitance in the grander scheme.
You might as well ask why eads is subsidised, or why uk coal, or the trains, the buses etc etc etc
Well actually I DO ask why UK Coal is subsidised. Just not on cycling websites.
Look at the Olympics, how much tax payer money was thrown into that and here in the north east i'm still waiting to see how it has helped us. i expect it will be a long wait. However the Grand Depart is up here and will ultimately help us up here.
I don't think you can compare a money making race like The Tour with the Olympics, which is a competition between Nations. And I live in London, where we paid more than anyone else, and the major legacy of the games for us is debt.
...which means less need of subsidy.
Whilst the Glydebourne is nice if you like that kind of thing I suspect there will be a few more people going to watch le Tour.
Well call me narrow minded, but I still can't see why a profitable private enterprise needs a subsidy from the taxpayer.
Why do you think ASO is profitable? They make money by charging towns money to host stages of the TdF.
Yes, and the Towns are happy to pay the money because they make a bundle when the Tour comes through.
Because it will generate income for the area and ultimately the government's coffers.
See you on Holme Moss !
You could say the same about The Glyndebourne Festival. That doesn't get a subsidy.
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