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07
Jul 2024
10 years on, what is the legacy of the Tour de France?
Ten years ago this weekend, the Tour de France came to Yorkshire, and Yorkshire rose to the occasion. Roads were resurfaced, tiny yellow jerseys knitted as bunting, bikes painted yellow to line the route, and thousands of family reunions, parties, clubs and pop-up businesses spawned in readiness for the race’s first phase, called the Grand Départ.
Unveiling the route, Gary Verity, CEO of the now-defunct tourism body Welcome to Yorkshire, said:
The Grand Départ will put Yorkshire on the map as a destination capable of hosting world-class events in a world-class location, providing a springboard to greater things.
The world, it seemed, came to our doorstep. An estimated 3.5 million people lined the roadside to watch the race, which brought in £128 million for the UK – £120 million of it to Yorkshire – according to a 64-page report issued by Welcome Yorkshire.
Later in 2014, British Cycling reported that total participation across all its recreational programmes had increased by 64%.
Following the event, Gary Verity, who was later knighted for bringing the Tour to the county, said:
There is no doubt the Grand Départ of the Tour de France was incredible for many businesses in Yorkshire and the benefits will be felt for many years to come.
So a decade later, is the impact of the “grandest of Grand Départs”, as Verity called it, still being felt in the region? Just what is the legacy of the Tour de France?
There are few physical traces. In Harrogate, a tree on Montpellier Hill still boasts the Eiffel Tower that was chainsawed into it in commemoration of the event, and at Ripley, there is a far more permanent-looking 15-foot-high dry-stone monument facing the A61.
The removable traffic islands remain – unmoved – but other than that, there’s not much to see. The yellow bikes have nearly all disappeared, and even those sophisticated-sounding French place names didn’t stick – for most of us, the Côte de Blubberhouses is still plain old Kex Gill.
A faded tea towel is a rare physical reminder of the Tour de France.
But that’s not to say the Tour didn’t leave a lasting impression; according to people in the cycling industry, nothing was ever the same after it came through.
Matt Mannakee, whose company Struggle Events runs long-distance cycling rides for enthusiasts, told the Stray Ferret:
The Tour de France made a huge difference. It had an impact on the economy, put a lot more people on bikes, and even made cycling a little bit cool.
For Matt, the Tour coming to Harrogate was like a dream come true. He said:
I’d been riding my bike and watching the Tour de France on TV since I was a little kid, so to see all the superstars – your heroes – on our home roads was a sight to behold. Seeing the Tour in my hometown in the sunshine, with all the crowds, was absolutely amazing.
Tour de France in Harrogate
In fact, Struggle Events itself is a direct result of the Tour. Matt said:
We weren’t a business 10 years ago. We started Struggle off the back of the boom in cycling and buzz of the Tour de France.
The company now holds three large sportive events a year, attracting hundreds of riders from all over the UK and beyond.
But these are far from the first events to be inspired by the Tour de France. For five years from 2015, the Tour de Yorkshire was a major legacy event promoted by the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) – the body behind the Tour de France – and part of the UCI Europe Tour.
Sadly, it was cancelled in 2020 due to covid and has never returned, but by the time of its last iteration in 2019, it had cemented cycling as a mainstream sport in Yorkshire.
John Reid had just opened his upmarket shop, Prologue Cycling on Cold Bath Road in Harrogate, when the ASO announced that the 2014 Grand Départ would come to Harrogate. He said:
It was great timing, and a great opportunity for us – we had a pop-up gazebo in the fanpark on the Stray selling water bottles and T-shirts. There was a fantastic buzz around the town.
It was a huge global sporting event – like the World Cup or the Olympics coming to town – and it attracted a much wider audience than just cycling fans.
A rider on the home straight up Parliament Street towards the finish of the Grand Départ.
Prologue has a café as well as a shop, and every weekend the place is busy with people stopping off mid-ride or starting out on one. John said:
The Tour put us on the map as a tourism destination, and even now we get people coming from further afield who are here to experience the fantastic cycling terrain of the Dales and the North York Moors.
Only this week, we had a couple of chaps in for breakfast from Hull. We’ve had others from Scotland, a couple on a tandem from Belgium, and even a family from Australia.
Harrogate now has three thriving cycle businesses [the other two are Specialized on West Park and Chevin Cycles on Ripon Road] and three very active cycling clubs: Wheel Easy, Harrogate Nova and Cappuccino Cycling Club.
The clubs’ members are amateurs, but once in a while a young rider breaks through into the big time, and according to Matt Mannakee, some of today’s crop will have been inspired by the Tour when it came to Yorkshire.
He said:
We’ve got people like Sam Watson, who’s riding in the Tour de France today, [UCI cyclo-cross world championships silver medallist] Cat Ferguson, and Tom Pidcock, the current Olympic mountain bike champion.
They’re all amazing athletes from Yorkshire who 10 years ago stood at the side of the road when the Tour came through. It inspired a generation.
The Legacy Ride is supported by Leeds City Council and sponsored by Leeds-based digital firm Axiologik.
Some of their amateur peers will be taking part in today’s Legacy Ride. This is a one-off event organised by Struggle to mark the 10th anniversary of the Tour de France, and as you read this, 600 riders are speeding – or indeed, struggling – around three routes of varying distances through the Dales.
The Legacy Ride started at 6 o’clock this morning at Roundhay Park in Leeds and will finish there through the afternoon, raising funds for the Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease Appeal and the MND Association along the way.
Matt said:
It brings together people from all over the UK who want to be able to say they’ve finished a Tour stage. We’ve got 300 people doing the longest route, and more female riders than in past events, which is really encouraging to see.
It seems Sir Gary Verity was right all those years ago: the Tour lives on in Yorkshire.
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