London Just Turned Down The Chance To Host The Start Of The Tour De France

Despite the fact that the city not only made a public bid to host the opening stages of the 2017 Tour De France, but also won the opportunity – London has just pulled out of the running.

Beating off stiff competition from likes of Edinburgh, Manchester and several German regions the capital decided to inform the Tour De France committee that they would be rejecting the offer just one day before contracts were due to be signed.

Obviously, this has really annoyed the organisers of the race; we made quite a big song-and-dance about how great we’d be at hosting it, especially considering the success of Yorkshire’s hosting of the Grand Depart.

Back in 2014 God’s County raked in almost four million spectators and boosted the economy by £100 million – whetting the appetites of London big wigs in the process.

The London rejection comes after TfL (who were due to fund the tour) said it couldn’t afford to host the stages, which would cost around £27million. Which is fair enough, but it does beg the question of why they proposed the bid in the first place…

The 2017 Grand Depart will now be held in Germany and the Amaury Sport Organisation who organise the race will doubtlessly never forgive London for being such a bunch of bloody cycle-teases.

[Via: BBC]