Comment: Major coup for Le Yorkshire Tour team

AS Gary Verity and Christian Prudhomme ended their joint press conference with a kiss on each cheek, it was difficult not to feel pride that for a brief spell the age old grudges between England and France had been forgotten.

It was a pure love-in as the chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire and the director of the Tour de France celebrated a tie-up that will see the first two stages of the 2014 cycling race take part in the region.

The pair had spent the past 45 minutes to the throng of regional, national and international journalists outlining why Le Bid Yorkshire had been successful.

The irony of the announcement coming on the same day of Ophrah Winfrey’s much anticipated interview with drug cheat and former Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong was not lost on anybody. 

However, this was a day for celebration for Yorkshire as Verity outlined how the economic and sporting legacy for the region would be huge.

Mr Prudhomme hailed the ‘Verity effect’ (my words not his) and said the enthusiasm, detail and thoroughness of the bid, led by Welcome to Yorkshire, had proved decisive.

Winning the Grand Depart is certainly a coup for the region with the bid team having received no central government help and they shouldn’t have any problem piggy-backing on the success of last summer’s Olympics and Sir Bradley’s Tour de France victory.

It’s interesting to note that senior politicians are now talking about offering financial help to support the two stages as they look to backtrack and gain some popularity votes. So hats off to the region for getting this far without any assistance.

But there’s now a lot to do. Eighteenth months seems a long time but will soon come round and there will be plenty of decisions to be made and cash to be spent to make the Grand Depart the spectacle Verity and Co have promised.

A note on the routes: there’s no denying they will pass through some of the region’s most breathtaking scenery and into many of our major towns and cities.

However, it was perhaps surprising not to see Hull and the Humber as well as the east coast of Yorkshire and North York Moors featuring. There is also some early moans about why Bradford has missed out.

Obviously the cyclists can’t get everywhere but it would be interesting to know how the decisions on the route were made. Time will no doubt tell.

Let’s just hope, as the bid team has promised, that the whole region will benefit from what will no doubt be a sporting extravaganza, perhaps unrivalled in Yorkshire’s illustrious past.