The Tour de France celebrated its 100th anniversary last year. It is at once the most prestigious cycling race in the world, at least in terms of its notoriety, an incredible media circus, a highly demanding sporting event, and a celebration for its participants!
Daily, we will briefly present the stages on this blog, trying to highlight original elements related to the starting or finishing towns, a personality, or a historical fact, all without pretension...
Starts July 5, 2014
Stage 1: Leeds-Harrogate, 190km
This year, the Tour will set off from the United Kingdom. Yorkshire is the largest county in the United Kingdom and is divided into four regions: North, West, South, and East Yorkshire. Yorkshire's geography is characterized by the large protected areas of the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. It includes the major urban centers of Leeds (start of the first stage of the 2014 Tour) and Sheffield, which are among the most populous in England. The white rose is its emblem.
Those who think cycling is a recent import to the United Kingdom are far from the truth. In women's cycling, Beryl Burton, a native of Leeds, was in the 60s and 70s the equivalent of Jeannie Longo in the following decades. Road World Champion in 1960 and 1967, she also collected five world titles in pursuit and multiple world records, not to mention her 90 national titles. An incomparable time trial specialist, she even managed to set a men's and women's world record over 12 hours in 1967. Married very young to Charlie Burton, an amateur cyclist, she raced with and against their daughter Denise, who beat her at the 1976 British Championships.
Beryl Burton and her daughter Denise, 1963.
"The Lady on the Bicycle", as Jean Bobet called her, who remained an amateur her entire life, passed away prematurely in 1996 from a heart attack while on her bike. Her village of Morley dedicated a garden and a race, the Beryl Burton Trophy, to her. Leeds can also boast of having
a 23-kilometer cycling "highway" connecting East Leeds and Bradford!
A stage ending in a sprint, which Mark Cavendish of OPQS dreams of. Over the 190 kilometers of the stage, the riders will cross the sumptuous Yorkshire Dales National Park, but the atmosphere will not be one of tourism. Since the route was announced last autumn, the spotlight has been on Cavendish, who could experience one of the most intense sensations of his career if he wins in the town where he used to spend his holidays in his youth. As a bonus, the Manx sprinter could also receive one of the few jerseys missing from his collection and have it presented to him by none other than Kate Middleton. But nothing is set in stone, as the penultimate kilometer with its slightly uphill profile could also give hope to sprinters capable of tackling climbs more easily. Peter Sagan precisely fits this profile. The bets are open…
Discover Yorkshire in images:
References:
http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2012/nov/25/maxine-peake-beryl-two-wheels