London bidding for 2017 Grand Depart

[BeagRigh]

Re: Re:

Not sure if it's been mentioned but Prudhomme said in his interview with ITV 2 days ago that 3 bids have been made from Britain for the 2017 grande depart. The 3 are London, Manchester and Scotland.

Scotland would be awesome. Nibali must be licking his lips.

Edinburgh could do an excellent 3 days.

Prologue: Round Arthur's Seat, passed the parliment and up the Royal Mile
Stage 1: Start and Finish in Edinburgh: 200km of rolling hills in the borders
Stage 2: Edinburgh -> St. Andrews along the coast Echelons almost guaranteed. (short stage for an easy transfer)

or split it with Glasgow:

Prologue/Stage 1 TT: Glasgow. 1 lap of the course used for the commonwealth games.
Stage 2: Glasgoe -> Edinburgh: 200km of rolling hills in the borders, with a lap of Arthur's Seat and a (probable) reduced sprint finish up the Royal Mile. Lots of oppertunities for attackers.
Stage 3: Edinburgh -> St. Andrews (as above)

I got halfway through planning a Tour of Scotland for the Race Design thread that kicked off with a M(H?)TT up here: http://climbbybike.com/climb.asp?Col=Lowther-Hill&qryMountainID=3971#profile
Then a Drumlanrig to Glasgow stage but the Tour aren't going to go for that!

 

[Catwhoorg]

Cardiff would be a great grand depart.

Prologue around Sofia Gardens area, finishing by the castle.

Hilly stage in the Valleys. (stage 1)
Then Bath to London (stage 2) and onwards to France

 

[Bernie's eyesore]

Re:

Cardiff would be a great grand depart.

Prologue around Sofia Gardens area, finishing by the castle.

Hilly stage in the Valleys. (stage 1)
Then Bath to London (stage 2) and onwards to France

Better to race from Bath or Bristol to the south coast and take the ferry across to Cherbourg. Another sprint stage into London would be tiresome.

 

[Catwhoorg]

True that, but everyone knows that no matter where in the UK gets a Grand Depart, the Mall will get its sprint finish.

London steals everyone's thunder.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re:

Cardiff would be a great grand depart.

Prologue around Sofia Gardens area, finishing by the castle.

Hilly stage in the Valleys. (stage 1)
Then Bath to London (stage 2) and onwards to France

Unfortunately it's not one of the places bidding.

I don't blame the Tour for riding the cash cow as much as it can (how many GTs have started in the Netherlands recently again?) but I do think going back so soon after 2014 takes a bit of the lustre off of it. The 2014 départ had a real atmosphere to it with the combination of Britain's current wave riding high in the sport and the Tour going to Yorkshire, giving both a different element to previous British visits which typically stayed in the south and better terrain, plus the Tour having not been to the UK for seven years meant it had a sense of occasion. Going back just three years later (and being at the point of announcing it only one year later) feels a bit saturating and cynical, especially when we've got to the point where a start in France is rarer than a start overseas and everybody's getting keeping up with the Joneses syndrome.

 

[Electress]

Re: Re:

Cardiff would be a great grand depart.

Prologue around Sofia Gardens area, finishing by the castle.

Hilly stage in the Valleys. (stage 1)
Then Bath to London (stage 2) and onwards to France

Unfortunately it's not one of the places bidding.

I don't blame the Tour for riding the cash cow as much as it can (how many GTs have started in the Netherlands recently again?) but I do think going back so soon after 2014 takes a bit of the lustre off of it. The 2014 départ had a real atmosphere to it with the combination of Britain's current wave riding high in the sport and the Tour going to Yorkshire, giving both a different element to previous British visits which typically stayed in the south and better terrain, plus the Tour having not been to the UK for seven years meant it had a sense of occasion. Going back just three years later (and being at the point of announcing it only one year later) feels a bit saturating and cynical, especially when we've got to the point where a start in France is rarer than a start overseas and everybody's getting keeping up with the Joneses syndrome.

I whole-heartedly agree. It smacks of 'cashing in'.

Us Yorkshire types turned out in force partly because it did feel very local - indeed, we'd got it in spite of rival 'official' bids from elsewhere in the UK. Gary Verity was very canny with his selling it to us as the Tour de Yorkshire etc. It gave it a sense of ownership and stirred considerable local pride.

But London is a different matter. I'm not saying people won't turn out for it, but London has so many events all year round. A lot of people I know just grumbled about last time - yet another lot of closed roads meaning a pain getting about. I can honestly say most people I knew in Cambridge didn't really give a toss (if they knew it was on at all).

 

[Catwhoorg]

I loved going to Stage 1 in 2014.

As I now live in the US it really was probably one and done for me, and it was very special.


London just will not be as electric an atmosphere as Yorkshire managed.

 

[TMP402]

I would personally go for a Manchester grand depart, not least because unlike London there would be a good narrative of the "war of the roses" - Yorkshire had an good grand depart, can Lancashire do just as well? You could open with a Prologue/ITT or sprint stage in central Manchester, and then two challenging stages in the pennines - when Prudhomme and ASO were creating the Tour de Yorkshire, they wanted it to visit the pennines but they discovered they couldn't go even in May because the conditions would be too bad.

Edit: stage 3 could be a mountain stage in the Lake Distict

 

[The Hitch]

It would be hilarious if Wiggins did this for the prologue and won the prologue as a 37y.o even though he couldn't even make the podium as a 27 y.o

 

[valentius borealis]

I'd love to see a TTTT (or perhaps a TTTTT), but I don't think it'd really work with a Grand Depart from elsewhere in the UK.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

After today's Tour stage ('15, stage 10), its fairly clear London will get the start imo.