Tour de France 2013

48 watchers

Dai Bank Sep 2013 10:45am, 17 Sep 2013 3,713 posts	0 Dai Bank Look it's all down to funding. Sweetspot bid to the Regional Development Agencies, now the respective tourist boards, or whatever replaced the RDAs when they were abolished. Yorkshire Forward agreed funding earlier in 2000s but there were Police issues with road closing when the Tour went there. YF went with the Tour proposal and that would have tied up funding for a good few years,no doubt Sweetspot wanted to learn lessons from the Police issues. IIRC Northumberland back cycling at Premier calender and sportives,.maybe that's where they want to spend their money. If Local Authorities have a good experience and so do Sweetspot it's natural that they will stick together. Equally LAs will want to assess their priorities aftera while. Somerset agreed funding for 5 years, that expired and they left and hence ToB doesn't visit Somerset.
paul the builder Sep 2013 10:50am, 17 Sep 2013 3,946 posts	0 paul the builder So - are you saying that Yorkshire folk are tight?
Dai Bank Sep 2013 10:57am, 17 Sep 2013 3,714 posts	0 Dai Bank No not all,I just think they went with that allocation of their budget to the Tour proposal.
Dai Bank Sep 2013 10:59am, 17 Sep 2013 3,715 posts	0 Dai Bank Although I might agree with the wink lol. Whenever we visit Leeds I do notice that our cash payment is scrutinised closely and our change is counted out in our hands rather than just passed over as it is elsewhere
hammerite Sep 2013 1:17pm, 17 Sep 2013 19,050 posts	0 hammerite Was going to write what Dai has. All about money, very little else. Unlike the Tour de France, Sweetspot sometimes sign multi year deals, hence why Stoke, Knowsley, Blackpool, Dartmoor etc.... Have been used multiple times in the last year. The transfers for this race are too long as it is for a week long race, it's impossible to cover the whole country in one tour. I've been talking to a local authority about helping raise some private finance so a race can be bought to the area. It's not a small amount
Dai Bank Sep 2013 1:26pm, 17 Sep 2013 3,717 posts	0 Dai Bank Too right Hamms, and it's very easy to mess up the budget. When Wales had a women' s World Cup race a few years ago it nearly bankrupted a few organisations as costs got out of hand and the decision was made to go ahead anyway.
mulbs Sep 2013 2:42pm, 17 Sep 2013 9,514 posts	0 mulbs anyway . . . . . I'm watching most of it on telly as I can only get to the sunday stage in that there London place (yes I do live in the south east), and I'm very much looking forward to both the televised footage of all the stages and whatever glimpse I happen to get on Sunday. I'm also delighted that the tour has chosen to say hello to Yorkshire next year, I voted online for that too. Loved seeing Cav and Wiggo having a chat and a laugh on stage 1, thought Cav got boxed in (purposely) and felt for him there, hope he gets a few good stages in - he tweeted today that if it carried on raining in Knowsley he would feed his race numbers to a lion (or some such)
runner duck Sep 2013 7:20pm, 17 Sep 2013 11,575 posts	0 runner duck off to watch the devon leg on friday - v excited! laughing at wiggo joking about not throwing his toys out of the pram after yesterday's fall i'm in trouble at home. we were all booked in to stay in yorkshire for the grand depart next year and now a friend is getting married in somerset on the saturday! will hopefully see the SE leg on the monday - scant consolation but better than nothing!
phôôk Sep 2013 7:33pm, 17 Sep 2013 1,700 posts	0 phôôk I've been watching it, and to be honest, I think it's all been a bit dull. A few good bits yesterday, but overall, it's not really inspired me at all. You can't make a cream cake without any cream... Sorry!
Lisa T Sep 2013 9:15pm, 17 Sep 2013 1,907 posts	0 Lisa T See I could watch wiggo for hours tt`ing!! Just totally awesome machine!