Yorkshire is the latest to benefit from the Bradley Wiggins effect and the feel-good factor generated by London 2012 after being awarded the start of the 2014 Tour de France.
Two stages, the first beginning in Leeds, will be held in the county on July 5 and 6, Tour organisers Amaury Sports Organisation announced yesterday, after the Welcome to Yorkshire-led bid won the right to host the Grand Depart ahead of rival bids including an Edinburgh start, which was backed by British Cycling.
The third stage of the 101st Tour will finish in London, with Tour director Christian Prudhomme eager to capitalise on the experiences of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The lure of London may have been the clinching factor for the Yorkshire bid as the Tour returns to Britain for the first time since 2007, when one million people lined the streets of the capital for the opening prologue.
“Bradley Wiggins’ historical victory and the enormous crowds that followed the cycling events in the streets of London during the Olympic Games encouraged us to go back earlier than we had initially planned,” Prudhomme said.
“We have encountered a phenomenal desire from the Yorkshire team to welcome the Tour de France and have no doubt that passion and support will be particularly evident for the Grand Depart of the Tour de France 2014.”
Wiggins became the Tour’s first British winner in July and Yorkshire has a rich cycling tradition; Britain’s first Tour stage winner Brian Robinson is from Huddersfield.
The Yorkshire bid also had the support of Team Sky’s Ben Swift, double Olympic track champion Ed Clancy and Malcolm Elliott, the first British rider to win a points jersey in a Grand Tour.
It will be the second time Britain has hosted the Grand Depart and the fourth visit in all following a single stage in Plymouth in 1974 and two across the south of England 20 years later.
The EventScotland-led Edinburgh start, with four stages one in Scotland, one across the north of England, one in Wales and one in the south of England was unsuccessful.
A successful Scottish Tour bid may have to wait three more years.
The 100th edition of the Tour begins in Corsica on June 29.