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news
TdF London Grand Depart 2007 pin (picture Simon MacMichael)London wins Grand Depart of 2017 Tour de France - then TfL withdraws bid at 11th hour
London won the right to host the Grand Départ of the Tour de France, it has emerged – but Transport for London decided at the eleventh hour to withdraw its bid on the eve of signing a contract with race owners ASO, citing funding issues.
And in a further blow for fans of cycling in the UK, among the bids beaten off by the British capital were proposals from Edinburgh and Manchester, with the race looking likely to begin in Germany the year after next, reports BBC Sport’s Matt Slater.
The city hosted the finish of Stage 3 of last year’s race, which began in Cambridge following a hugely successful opening two days in Yorkshire, the first two stages alone boosting the local economy by more than £100 million, according to estimates.
Last year’s visit to the UK cost £27 million, of which HM Treasury provided £10 million and TfL £6 million.
The 2007 Grand Départ, which had a Prologue in London and a road stage from the capital to Canterbury, cost a similar amount and brought in spectator spend of £65.6 million in London alone, according to a report commissioned by TfL.
However, TfL – which has said it will finance the controversial Garden Bridge Project to the tune of £30 million – and the Greater London Authority decided to pull out of plans to host the race for the third time in 11 years, in part because of the prospect of further cuts to public spending in the government’s forthcoming spending review.
Leon Daniels, TfL’s director of surface transport, told BBC Sport: "To ensure value for money we must make difficult choices.
"We have always said that the return of the Tour was subject to funding."
Although not officially cited as a reason, there is also a mayoral election next May to choose Boris Johnson’s successor.
And there has also been a change at the top of TfL itself - just last week, London Underground boss Mike Brown was named successor as commissioner with immediate effect to Sir Peter Hendy, who left in July to run Network Rail.
After last year’s opening days of cycling's biggest race, Tour de France race director Christian Prudhomme, who forged an excellent working relationship with Welcome to Yorkshire’s Sir Gary Verity, said he was keen for the race to return to the UK as soon as possible.
- Three UK cities in running to host Tour de France 2017 Grand Départ
But with the route of next year’s Tour de France due to be announced in Paris next month, around now is when ASO would usually expect to reveal the location of the following edition’s Grand Départ.
The organisation is said to be angry at the late u-turn by TfL, and what remains to be seen is the damage it may do to any future bid from London – or indeed any other city or region in the UK.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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41 comments
I don't have a problem with it not being value for money, I do have a problem that it trumped other UK bids by virtue if putting the most on the table, then withdrawing.
All they have done is put the price up.
To host the Tour in 2014, TfL pinched £6 million from the general cycling budget. That funding could have been put toward infrastructure, cycle training and a host of other things with genuine, year-round positive effects for cycling.
http://cyclelondoncity.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/6million-cycling-safety-bu...
If it's a choice between funding for safe everyday cycling, or a big sporting event with bugger all legacy value, I'll take the former.
They don't have £6 million for the grand depart but have £30 million to spunk on a garden bridge that is neither a garden nor a bridge and will permanently ruin views of St Paul's.
Yes indeed. The biggest problem race organisers have in the UK is the "something for nothing" culture that permiates within the businesses and communities that profit from it. It's no good for Gary Verity or TfL to claim that these events generate hundreds of millions when hardly any of that money goes back to the race organisation to pay the bills. On the continent it is expected that businesses and communities connected with the race raise the money to pay for it, and they do. Some small communes raise tens of thousands of euros to bid for the race to go through their village.
Bojo should have made his intentions clear before or at least during the bidding process. Doing it after being awarded is extremely incompetent and embarrassing for the UK. Other international sport committees will now think twice about accepting bids for awarding buds from the UK knowing that the current political leaders behave like this.
Boris has just been on the Beeb saying it was his decision and that he considered the £35M cost would be better spent on improving cycling infrastructure for everyone. I'd agree. I just hope the money does actually get spent on the infrastructure.
They made a mistake, they thought they were bidding for the other A.S.O organised race Tour de France à la Voile.
My mind is boggled at this stupidity.
TfL should not have bid to host the Grand Depart if there was any possibility of not being able to host the race.
And actually, why is the decision even down to TfL? The impact the event has on the UK's wider economy needs just a little bit more strategic thinking than satisfying TfL's desire to build a bridge instead.
So lets get this right: TFL are facing shrinking budgets and spending cuts, so decide to build an unnecessary and impractical bridge to the cost of £30m. An item that will return nothing to the investment. But won't pay a much smaller amount to host a Global sporting event which will return anything up to 10x the investment back to the city, including a significant increase in fares revenue for TFL from visitors, spectators and the increase spending within London. F**king ridiculous. I sometimes wish I wasn't a Londoner.
Well at least we didn't waste time and money putting forward a bid and piss off ASO in the process.....
Surely the revenue generated by TFL over a grand depart weekend purely on the tubes alone would go a long way to paying for the event to be held. Hundreds of thousands of people pumpng money straight back into the TFL coffers. Add to that the local profits for accomodation, food, events management etc?
Or am I missing something?
Not that it makes much difference but pride in my Capital City lost & i will NOT be applying for Ride London anymore!... Tossers!
Perhaps part of the problem is ASO asking for too much money from the hosting cities / towns.
Not good news, but I'd rather they make a wise decision rather than a popular one.
Jilted at the church door ... not a good look.
Poor play by TfL, I'd personally like to see the race up in Scotland before if comes South again anyway.
I wouldn't blame TfL, blame the spending review. We were just told to expect up to 40% cuts in November & thats scientific research essential to the country. These came out of the blue after election & no-one could foresee.
Its a shitter & no good for country's reputation, but its treasury & Cameron, not the people who put the bid in in good faith.
Exactly what I was about to say - I think we must move in similar spheres
The Tories said that were going to make massive spending cuts if they won the election, it just seems that people either didn't believe them, or thought that these wouldn't translate into anything they like being cut.
Maybe the complainants are from the 53 million who didn't vote tory rather than the 11m who did.
For me, the issue is the last minute, no notice withdrawal, rather than the withdrawal.
I should check on the total number of UK voters if I were you .....
So basically Boris inherited two big successes in the form of the Olympics and public bike hire from his predecessor, took the credit for them and doesn't intend doing the same favour for whoever succeeds him...
I'd heard a rumor that the GD2016 was to be held in America!!!!!
If there was ever a reason to vote against Tory austerity measures...
Nothing to do with the Tories. Thought austerity measures were in place before the bid was put in. Can't blame Dave for everything.
I hope they put the money they saved to good use by building a garden bridge across the thames.
They outbid Manchester and Edinburgh, then turned it down...
...at the last minute.
If TfL didn't want to host it they should have made it plain earlier. Backing out at the last minute is certainly not very stylish, and ruins any other British city's chances.
Give it to Yorkshire again. We'll sort it out.
Not half ! They should have TdF in God's Own County every other year and alternate with Tour de Yorkshire every other year.
Why are ASOS pissing about with the south of England where the scenery and cycling and attitudes are all wrong.
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