Exclusive: Swift gives support to Yorkshire hosting Tour de France dates

Team Sky rider Ben Swift has described as ‘fantastic’ Welcome to Yorkshire’s bid to stage the Grand Depart of the 2016 Tour as he believes it would raise the profile of the sport in the county while simultaneously providing the best road racers in the world with a very demanding challenge.

The county’s tourism board have been holding detailed talks with Tour de France organisers for a number of months over the possibility of hosting the opening two stages of the 2016 Tour in the White Rose county.

Next week, Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive Gary Verity and a party will head across the channel as guests of the Tour de France team to gain a behind-the-scenes perspective on the three-week race, which begins on July 2.

And negotiations are at such an advanced stage between the two parties that the Tour team will visit the county later this year for discussions, and possibly again next summer to assess how Yorkshire and the tourism board handle the staging of the London 2012 Olympic torch relay.

Hosting the Grand Depart – which would not only encompass two days of racing but also three days of presentations and galas beforehand – could net tens of millions of pounds for the region’s economy while showcasing the area to a global television audience of more than two million people.

London hosted the Grand Depart in 2007, an event which was hailed as the most successful in the Tour’s 108-year history and yielded an estimated £88m for the south east.

It would be the fourth time the Tour has started in Britain and although the proposed routes have yet to be finalised, it is understood cyclists would congregate at start-finish points in Leeds and Sheffield and would make their way over the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors and through Scarborough and Hull.

Rotherham’s Swift is a contender to make his debut in this summer’s Tour de France following a season in which he has convinced British cycling guru Dave Brailsford and the Team Sky hierarchy that he is more than just a specialist climber.

The 23-year-old – who was King of the Mountains in the 2007 Tour of Britain which swept through Yorkshire – has produced a ruthless demonstration of sprint finishing to win five races this season and finish third in a sprint time-trial at last week’s Tour of Switzerland.

By 2016 he could be a Tour de France regular and performing in front of his home fans.

“The Tour de France in Yorkshire would be unreal, fantastic,” said Swift, who contested the 2008 Olympic road race in Beijing.

“It would do wonders for the local area, and it would also make for great racing.

“The whole experience for everyone involved would be fantastic.

“The roads of Yorkshire would make for entertaining racing because although it’s not the climbs of the Alps or the Pyrenees, it will catch a lot of people off guard,” he said.

“The terrain will be really undulating and it would be a tough test with the crosswinds at their peak.

“You wouldn’t necessarily win the Tour de France in Yorkshire but you could easily lose it.”

Yorkshire is understood to face competition for the 2016 Grand Depart from a wide range of European countries as well as the oil rich state of Qatar.

Scotland, Utrecht in Holland, Barcelona, Florence and Krakow are among the places attempting to convince Tour de France organisers that their package would best facilitate the enormous entourage of people, publicity and finances the Tour brings.

A spokesperson from Welcome to Yorkshire said yesterday of the latest developments: “It is true we are facing competition from other European destinations to host the Tour but we have been encouraged by our positive meetings with ASO, the organisers, and feel Yorkshire can provide the perfect backdrop to the Tour.

“The route is not finalised yet but over the two days of racing we envisage it visiting Yorkshire’s major hubs, the Dales, the Moors and the coast, showcasing the county’s diversity as well as providing a competitive test for the 22 teams of riders.

“We are unable to discuss costings but we believe the benefit of hosting the Tour in Yorkshire will far outweigh any initial investment that is made.”

The Tour attracts around 15 million spectators and 1,200 hotel rooms are reserved for the teams, staff, press and tour personnel.

More than 2,000 hours of television coverage of the Tour is beamed to 185 countries.

The proposed route through Yorkshire would test riders over more than 200 miles of riding.

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