With cycling’s popularity at a record high in Britain after Bradley Wiggins’ victory in the Tour de France last Sunday, the push to bring the race back to the England has been boosted by that success.
Sky Procycling’s performance has led to an increased awareness of the country as a cycling nation; in Britain itself, the publicity of Wiggins’ win will likely make a Tour bid easier in terms of securing funding and also of gaining political support.
Now the campaign has received an extra boost, with the French president François Hollande putting his backing behind the bid.
"We have strong cross-party political support within the county to make this happen and now we have the support of President François Hollande, which is great news for our bid,” said Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire. It is responsible for the push to bring the Tour to the area in 2016.
A total of 150,000 people have already backed the Yorkshire bid, with members of the public able to do so via the Back le Bid campaign on www.yorkshire.com/backlebid.
Labour party leader Ed Miliband told the Telegraph that he was fully behind the plans. He is the MP for Doncaster North, which is part of Yorkshire.
“The president was 'very supportive',” he confirmed, speaking about Hollande. He indicated that he felt the same way. “It would be a good thing for Yorkshire. It would be a great thing for my constituency. I am backing le bid.”
The region is up against competition from Scotland in the north, as well as Barcelona, Venice and Berlin. Verity said that there were several reasons why he believed the bid he is backing should win out.
“Yorkshire is seen by many as the spiritual heartland of cycling in the UK,” he said. “We have the cycling heritage, we have the champions and we are race ready to host Le Tour. It would be an honour to bring the race back to England and host it in our great county. We are working hard to make that happen.”