Forget the World Cup in sun-kissed Brazil – for many the top sporting spectacle of 2014 will see millions lining the Tour de France route in Yorkshire
They will be lining the streets in Calderdale, Huddersfield and the Holme Valley hoping for a glimpse of Sir Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome or Mark Cavendish.
There are just six months to go until the biggest annual cycling event in the world starts in Yorkshire.
Organisers say the “penny’s started to drop” that it is heading for the UK and it is going to be huge, possibly generating £100m in Yorkshire.
“We’re starting to get very giddy now,” said Gary Verity, the chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, the tourism agency that landed the Tour’s Grand Depart 2014.
“With around about six months to go it’s very real. I think that the penny’s started to drop with a lot of people.
“The Tour de France has never seen anything like Yorkshire before and Yorkshire has never seen anything like the Tour de France.
“You put these two things together and you’ve got the recipe for something to be incredibly exciting and I think people are starting to get the gist of that now.”
And they certainly are in Huddersfield with a three-day festival based at Huddersfield Rugby Union Club at Lockwood expected to draw thousands of visitors.
More than 20 bands will be appearing over the course of the weekend and up to 2,000 people are expected to camp out on the fields. Up to 6,000 could turn up on day tickets.
The site is just yards from Bridge Street which is on the route of the Tour de France Grand Depart.
Mr Verity added: “This huge event – the biggest annual sporting event in the world – is going to be here and it’s going to be here really soon.”
The arrival of the Tour in July will be first time the world’s most famous bike race has been in Britain since it visited Kent in 2007.
Since then, the profile of cycling and the Tour itself has rocketed in the UK.
The success of the British teams in the Beijing and London Olympics and the back-to-back triumphs of Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome in Paris mean the Tour is coming at a time when there’s a huge appetite for the sport.
And, according to Mr Verity, it is a purple patch for Yorkshire too.
“Yorkshire’s profile has never been higher and it’s never been higher because the Tour de France is coming here,” he said.
“Everybody’s talking about Yorkshire.
“The Lonely Planet Guide named Yorkshire as one of the top three destinations in the world. I’m absolutely sure that part of the reason that came about is because the Tour de France is coming here.
“So I think people will seize that opportunity to see history being made on the roads of Yorkshire.”
On July 5, stage one of the Tour will start on The Headrow in Leeds and the riders will head out for the Yorkshire Dales before finishing in Harrogate.
The day after, the riders move to York before passing through Calderdale and Huddersfield, tackling the UK’s toughest climbs en route to Sheffield – including the notoriously difficult Holme Moss.
With 3,000ft of climbing, this is set to be the toughest opening stage in the history of the Tour.
The spectacle then moves south for the third stage with a start in Cambridge and a finish on The Mall, in London, before the whole entourage moves back across the Channel.
The big celebrations will start at the 100-days-to-go-mark on March 27, but Mr Verity says the county could stage the Grand Depart tomorrow if Tour chief Christian Prudhomme demanded it.
“Yorkshire’s ready now,” he said.
“The reality is that we’ve been ready for some time. The roads are ready, the local authorities are ready, all of our partners who we are working with are ready and we are very excited about this.”
With some estimates suggesting up to three million people will watch the Grand Depart, one study has suggested it could mean a direct cash boost to Yorkshire of around £100 million.
According to Mr Verity, the longer term benefit could be three times this amount. He said fundamental economic effects have already been felt.
One example he gives is how one major bank has already relaxed its business lending criteria to Yorkshire businesses on the strength of the expected impact of the Tour on the county.
He said many hotels are filling up quickly all around the 248 mile route and other accommodation – including scores of pop-up camp sites – are gearing up to cope with the hundreds of thousands of expected visitors.
