The Tour has its grand départ outside of France every two years, for example London and Amsterdam have hosted it in the past, and the Back Le Bid campaign aims to bring it to Yorkshire.
As well as providing a stunning backdrop for the Tour de France, the many steep hills in our region should be able to challenge even the world's best cyclists. Hosting the Tour will also bring economic benefits to Yorkshire as fans, participants and organisers will visit the region and experience our great hospitality.
In addition, TV coverage of the Tour de France (which has an estimated 2 billion viewers) will showcase Yorkshire to those who follow the race on TV and no doubt persuade some of them to visit our region.
Yorkshire has a long history with the Tour de France as the region had generated more stage winners than any other region in England. These stage winners include Brian Robinson from Huddersfield who was the first British winner of a Tour de France stage in 1958, and Barry Hoban from Wakefield who won eight stages between 1967 & 1975. Both Brian and Barry are naturally backing the Yorkshire bid to host the opening stage in 2016, as are current leading British cyclists Mark Cavendish, whose mother comes from Yorkshire, and Ben Swift who hails from Rotherham.
If you would like to see the opening stage of the 2016 Tour de France, please sign up to "Back Le Bid" as I did.
Rebecca and her bike near the Hull constituency office (I cycle there from the train station!)
UPDATE
The Back le Bid campaign is gathering pace and has now hit the national media:
Sky Sports
The Guardian
Links:
Back le Bid
Tour de France
Welcome to Yorkshire