Key business leaders and the county’s top organisations have joined the team supporting Yorkshire’s bid to host the Grand Départ of the Tour de France.

Leading representatives from trade bodies, the county’s universities, MPs and the business community came out in a show of support for Yorkshire’s bid when the organisers of the Tour de France visited this month.

Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire said, “It’s been an honour to host the Tour de France in Yorkshire, the great county has looked splendid, the sun has shone and we have given them a real taste of the landscape, landmarks, passion and amazing people they can expect to be behind our bid. They leave with our good wishes and we look forward to meeting them again in the future.”

Andrew Palmer, Yorkshire and Humber director of the CBI, added: “To secure this great cycling event would undoubtedly bring enormous benefits for the region, raise our profile across the world and hopefully give Yorkshire a boost to help inward investment.”

Bill Adams, regional secretary of the Yorkshire and Humber TUC said: “This prestigious event would be excellent news for Yorkshire with regard to providing jobs and forward investment in the region, and could well help to support people into employment.”

Kenton Robbins, regional director of Institute of Directors, added: “The Institute of Directors wholeheartedly offers its support and backing to Welcome to Yorkshire’s bid to stage the Tour de France here in our vibrant county of Yorkshire.”

The delegation from the Tour de France were given a tour of the county’s landmarks and shown the variety of landscapes in which the world’s largest annual sporting event could be hosted.

They visited York and the Yorkshire Dales and saw the Yorkshire coast from Scarborough to the Humber Bridge. In Leeds, where the bid has the backing of Marketing Leeds and Leeds City Region, they went on a walking tour to view the civic buildings, public spaces and possible Tour venues.

If successful, the county would benefit to the tune of tens of millions of pounds of extra visitor spend and be the focus of a worldwide television audience of over two billion people. Over 185 countries around the world show the Tour de France every year on 92 different television channels with the last hour of every stage broadcast live across Western Europe.

Councillor Keith Wakefield, Leader of Leeds City Council, which is the host city in the bid, said: “The Tour de France is one of the most exciting sporting spectacles there is and we’re fully behind the bid to bring it to Leeds. Yorkshire has a long and proud cycling heritage and we hope that by hosting the Tour de France we inspire a new generation of cyclists from the city and county to follow in their footsteps, embrace the sport and represent Yorkshire on the world stage.”

Yorkshire has won more stages of the Tour de France than any other part of the UK and the bid has the backing of some of the biggest names in cycling, such as Mark Cavendish and Ben Swift.

Everyone is being urged to support the bid to bring the Tour de France to Yorkshire by logging onto www.yorkshire.com/backlebid.

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