THE humble bicycle became a symbol of freedom and humanity in Westminster yesterday as Jean-Marie Leblanc, the director of the Tour de France, hailed the arrival of the French race in 2007 as an opportunity to “put the bike in the hearts of Londoners”.
The caravan of the Tour will arrive in Central London in July next year, buoyed by a spirit of conviviality, humanity and environmentalism. More perhaps than at any other Tour start in recent memory, the emphasis at yesterday’s presentation was the cultural, rather than sporting, importance of the three-week race.
Any bitterness in French minds after the loss of the 2012 Olympics to the UK capital appeared to be forgotten as Leblanc described the Tour’s visit to London as “a pilgrimage”. “We are friends, neighbours, sometimes competitors, but we will help realise the dream of putting the bike in the heart of London,” he said.
The choice of July 7 as the date for the Grand Départ in London was pinpointed by Ken Livingstone, the Mayor, as evidence of the Tour’s global impact. “Having the Grand Départ on July 7 will broadcast to the world that terrorism does not shake our city,” he said. “There can be no better way of celebrating the unity of humanity than this great sporting event coming to us on that day and being seen by millions, safely and happily.”
There will be two days of racing in the South of England. On July 7, an eight-kilometre prologue time-trial will trace a fast and spectacular route from Whitehall, via Victoria, Hyde Park Corner, the Serpentine and The Mall, while on July 8 the first road stage will leave The Mall and, passing many London landmarks en route, head south through Kent to Canterbury.
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Livingstone put a figure of £3.6 million on the cost of London’s bid but was adamant that the investment would be repaid at a rate of “ten to one” and estimated that two million spectators would generate income to the capital’s tourist trade of about £70 million.
Such estimates appear well-founded. More than 180 nations take live television coverage of the Tour and the world’s media will descend on the capital for almost a week as they prepare for the three-week road trip.
“Those figures are robust,” Livingstone said. “When the Grand Départ gets here next summer, it will receive the biggest welcome from the fastest-growing cycling city in Europe.”
In sporting terms, the two British stages are unlikely to represent more than an aperitif to the main course of the Tour, which will, as usual, be played out in the tougher terrain of the Alps and the Pyrenees. Despite that, the size and ambience of a race that has become established as the world’s third largest sporting event, and perhaps its most logistically demanding, is likely to take some Londoners by surprise.
Road closures and crowd control will be masterminded by Transport for London and the London Traffic Control Centre, who will assist the race convoy as it moves around the city.
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“It promises to be one of the most impressive starts in the Tour’s history,” Christian Prudhomme, the Tour’s director of cycling, said. “We expect huge crowds again. In 1994, the stage between Dover and Brighton had the largest crowd of any stage that year.”
If Bradley Wiggins, the Olympic pursuit champion whose family live within a stone’s throw of the prologue course, will be cast as the local hero for the London prologue, then David Millar, British cycling’s black sheep after his ban for doping offences, will have taken extra motivation from yesterday’s presentation.
Millar, whose ban expires in June this year, was excised from mention in yesterday’s presentation, despite having worn the yellow jersey during the 2000 Tour. Both he and Wiggins, who has yet to ride the Tour, will have plenty to prove when they roll down the start ramp in Whitehall in 16 months’ time.