T'Tour

[Gangster Octopus]

2014 - Le Tour's comming to Yorkshire...

[Gangster Octopus]

T'Tour

Confirmation. Details to follow.

[evilC]

T'Tour

When I were a lad, Tour lasted 3 months and all the bikes were made of razor wire and lead.

[Benjm]

T'Tour

This is very exciting.

The race should cover a fair bit of ground over two stages. Will it find time to visit that most iconic of British cycling locations, the end of Harry GM's road?

[evilC]

T'Tour

Not quite (just) Yorkshire, but I'd like to see a stage that ran down through the Lake District, then across to the Dales and then down through the Peak District, finishing in Derby (or somewhere similar).

[Ray de Galles]

T'Tour

Benjm wrote: This is very exciting.

The race should cover a fair bit of ground over two stages. Will it find time to visit that most iconic of British cycling locations, the end of Harry GM's road?

Bloody hell, are you on my Facebook or did I mention that on here?

[Felicity, I guess so]

T'Tour

Great title, GO.

Great news, too.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

T'Tour

Traditionally the first few stages of a Tour are flat ones, which is a pity, they could have some cracking races up and down the Pennines.

[Sean of the Shed]

T'Tour

There should be at least one climb

[Duncan Gardner]

T'Tour

It'd be a long stage from Yorkshire to Dorset...

[Gangster Octopus]

T'Tour

T'route...

[Janik]

T'Tour

Cambridge to London via Epping Forest, eh? That sounds very hopeful. Not impossible that the Tour might be coming within five miles of me, or even closer.

The guy from Cambridge City Council was on the local TV news last night stating that Cambridge are paying precisely nothing for the privilege of hosting a stage start, with their fee being covered by 'the Northern councils'. Which is very kind of them, what with the north/south divide and all.

[Southport Zeb]

T'Tour

I am looking forward to Tour going through Holmfirth - the commentary as three old men in a bath overtake the peleton should be interesting.

[Central Rain]

T'Tour

southportzeb wrote: I am looking forward to Tour going through Holmfirth - the commentary as three old men in a bath overtake the peleton should be interesting.

applause

[Gangster Octopus]

T'Tour

Let's pretend it's not in Yorkshire...

[kugelrund]

T'Tour

There was an interview on one episode of The Bike Show with a guy who went out with someone from Bienvenue en Yorkshire (or somesuch) and the Tour route organisers to select the route, and he revealed that the organisers sometimes ruled out some of the more spectacularly steep climbs that were proposed - on the grounds that "some of the Tour vehicles wouldn't make it up them".

Seems a shame that the route is dictated (obviously only to a certain extent) by this - but it finally explained to me why, when they went past our place a few years ago, they chose the easier, less madly twisty "col" to get to where they went to next.

(Col in inverted commas because both routes are officially-named cols, but neither exactly qualify as mountain passes.)

[Gangster Octopus]

T'Tour

T'route.

[Janik]

T'Tour

Bah, that gets no closer to me than 10 miles. Hardly worth it.

[longeared]

T'Tour

I like the Cote de Midhopestones, Cote de Bradfield and Cote d'Oughtibridge on t'stage profile

[Kevin S]

T'Tour

Not a fan of the Cote de Blubberhouses?

Five MTFs, though? I mean, I love an MTF as much as the next guy but we could end up with three very similar looking GTs next year.

Cobbles on stage 5 should be fun though.

[Kevin S]

T'Tour

Just looked at the start map for Cambridge. I should be able to see it from the office window. Not that I'm planning to be at work on July 7, mind.

[evilC]

T'Tour

longeared wrote: I like the Cote de Midhopestones, Cote de Bradfield and Cote d'Oughtibridge on t'stage profile

"Cote de Blubberhouses" is my favourite.

[VTTBoscombe]

T'Tour

Ah! 3 days in the Vosges - sorted.

[Danger Mouse]

T'Tour

Is there anywhere showing the specific details of the route, as opposed to "York - Sheffield" etc? I seem to recall when it was first announced that the route should be within about a mile of our house but want to check if that's right or not

[kugelrund]

T'Tour

They keep a lot of it general at first. If you look on the stage-by-stage guide on the Tour website at the moment, there are stage profiles for mountain stages and for the attention-grabbing cobbled sections in Belgium, but for many of them, all you see is the stage start and finish towns.

York-Sheffield is up there, though. Maybe you can work it out from that, but it'll be a while before actual road-by-road details and estimated times of arrival for the caravan and the riders are published.