Dreamland stuff then, the route of the 2014 Tour De France Grand Depart has just been announced. Stage one finishes with a sprint in Harrogate and stage two appears to be going through Knaresborough and then pretty much past my house. Deep joy all round, a flat'ish stage for Cavendish to have a pop and maybe win a stage in his mum's home town. Thousands of bike fans all spending money in the town and the eyes of the Europe and a fair bit of the rest of the world on Harrogate. Lets make it a good one Harrogate, lets show the world we are a bike friendly town, lets show them we take bikes and activity seriously and lets do Yorkshire proud.
Right I'm off to lie in a darkened room and calm down a bit.
More on the route here
Legacy
What will the tour leave Harrogate when it moves on? Other than some great memories, a few hangovers, some fuller bank accounts and lots of tidying up. If we are not careful the answer could be precious little. If the eyes of the world are to be turned on Harrogate for a few hours, it would be nice to think that like the olympics where legacy was a founding principle. That Harrogate can benefit on the back of the sporting circus having come to town.
It should come as no surprise then that cycle Harrogate will be banging the drum for mass participation and the infrastructure to bring this participation about over the next 18 months. If Harrogate could get anything lasting out of the tour I would like it to be that it becomes a "biketown".
Great news for Harrogate.
ReplyDelete~tejvan