{"id":174053,"date":"2019-05-31T10:13:03","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T10:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=174053"},"modified":"2019-05-31T10:13:03","modified_gmt":"2019-05-31T10:13:03","slug":"the-costs-and-benefits-of-hosting-a-tour-stop-and-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/05\/31\/the-costs-and-benefits-of-hosting-a-tour-stop-and-start\/","title":{"rendered":"The Costs and Benefits of Hosting a Tour Stop (and Start)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year\u2019s Tour de France kicks off in Brussels, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Tour championship of the Belgian native Eddy Merckx, generally regarded as the greatest road racer of all time. Merck\u2019s 1969 win was the first of his five Tour victories; he also won 34 Tour de France stages, five Giro d\u2019Italias (and 24 stages) and one Vuelta d\u2019Espana in his illustrious career.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, there are many very good reasons to have the Grand D\u00e9part in the Belgian capital: it gives the country and the Tour de France the opportunity to pay homage to a great champion and, indirectly, to celebrate the race itself and its past heroes. But, of course, there is also a very important economic aspect for the host.<\/p>\n

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\u0160koda caravan vehicle pictured during a 14 km individual time-trial, the first stage of the 104th edition of the Tour de France cycling race on July 1, 2017 in and around Dusseldorf, Germany. \u00a9 Profimedia, AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Tour de France is the world\u2019s third most viewed sporting event, broadcasted in 190 countries. As the city of Brussels states on its website: \u201cThis is a unique opportunity\u2026 to promote the city, to put ‘Brussels on the map’. But also to reveal [its] architectural, cultural and culinary heritage and to emphasize [its] cosmopolitan and open aspect in Europe.\u201d In other words, it\u2019s great advertising.<\/p>\n

More directly, it provides an immediate economic boom to the city because road racing aficionados, Merckx fans (of which there are many) and Tour de France tourists from all over the world will fill its hotels, restaurants and tourist shops.<\/p>\n

These benefits don\u2019t come free of charge, of course. Cities bid to host a Grand D\u00e9part or any other stop in the three-week race \u2013 and the honour doesn\u2019t come cheaply. According to the Cyclist magazine, the British city of Portsmouth and the Danish capital Copenhagen both offered bids to host the 2019 Grand D\u00e9part. And London had also been in the running.<\/p>\n

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Marcel Kittel crosses the finish line to win stage 3 – Cambridge to London (07 Jul 2014) \u00a9 Profimedia, TEMP Rex Features<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In order to fund its bid, Portsmouth had asked for a grant of more than \u00a32 million from the British government. But with the British Cycling focusing its efforts on hosting the UCI Road World Championships in Yorkshire this year, the bid fizzled. London never made an official bid, because the city\u2019s former mayor, a certain Boris Johnson, vetoed the idea because of the cost involved.<\/p>\n

The costs of hosting a stop of any grand tour race are indeed high. The bid for the right to host the race includes, among other things, money to cover the costs of the complex logistics of managing the spectacle: police to maintain law and order, hiring and training volunteers to perform the many tasks involved with making sure every spectator and visitor knows where to be and how to get there, the clean-ups, rerouting traffic, and so on.<\/p>\n

According to VeloNews, Denmark spent an estimated $3.86 million to host three stages of the 2012 Giro d\u2019Italia. Seven years later, the costs will certainly be greater, perhaps even double. Both ASO, which runs the Tour de France, and the county of Yorkshire, which hosted the 2014 Grand D\u00e9part, refused to reveal the costs of the event (ASO does not reveal financial arrangements as a matter of policy). However, Edinburgh, which also bid for the 2014 start, had budgeted \u00a310 million for it. That is a lot of money \u2013 and will be even more for Brussels, five years on.<\/p>\n

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Riders of the Radioshack Nissan team are testing the time trial route of the first stage of the Giro d’Italia 2012 cycling tour in Herning, Denmark, 04 May 2012.\u00a0\u00a9 Profimedia, TEMP EPA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But the benefits easily outweigh the costs. As VeloNews put it: \u201cThe potential economic impact on the Tour\u2019s overall start host is estimated to be more than 10-fold.\u201d And Andrew Denton, head of media for Yorkshire\u2019s Grand D\u00e9part told the magazine that while their bid was \u201cconsiderably less\u201d than \u00a310 million, \u201cWe believe it will be worth \u00a3100 million to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is why local and national governments and investors are so eager to hand over millions to road race organizers for the privilege of hosting a grand tour stop or start. As former Giro director Angelo Zomegnan said, \u201cThe amount is quickly absorbed because the Giro d\u2019Italia leaves the city with at least 10 times its investment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year\u2019s Tour de France kicks off in Brussels, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Tour championship of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":174059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"tags":[2396,3092,3094,433,3093],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-174053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-road-cycling","tag-2019-tour-de-france","tag-grand-depart","tag-hosting-a-tour-stop","tag-tour-de-france","tag-uci-road-world-championships"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Costs and Benefits of Hosting a Tour Stop (and Start) - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This year\u2019s Tour de France kicks off in Brussels, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Tour championship of the Belgian native Eddy Merckx,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/05\/31\/the-costs-and-benefits-of-hosting-a-tour-stop-and-start\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Costs and Benefits of Hosting a Tour Stop (and Start)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This year\u2019s Tour de France kicks off in Brussels, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Tour championship of the Belgian native Eddy Merckx,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/05\/31\/the-costs-and-benefits-of-hosting-a-tour-stop-and-start\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-05-31T10:13:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2019\/05\/Tour-de-France-Froome-CVR-profimedia-0235966430.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Siegfried Mortkowitz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/05\/31\/the-costs-and-benefits-of-hosting-a-tour-stop-and-start\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/05\/31\/the-costs-and-benefits-of-hosting-a-tour-stop-and-start\/\",\"name\":\"The Costs and Benefits of Hosting a Tour Stop (and Start) - 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