Pro cycling “has been failed structurally and commercially”

[Jameshow]

I would hope most of them will have insurance to cover refunds if they cancel the event.

I'd be taking it out myself!👍

 

[Dogtrousers]

The cost/benefit of TdY (& similar events) was very difficult to assess.
Cost to councils, grumpy motorists & some businesses, but, as well as plenty of enthusiastic locals, an undoubted benefit to tourist industry that extended well beyond race days. Overall economic benefit was claimed in some ‘proper’ analysis but, as with all public events the financial return doesn’t necessarily get back to those that pay. This is true everywhere, but in a country where there appears to be a significant anti-cyclist lobby it’s a difficult sell.

When it kicked off I honestly thought the TdY was the future. It was really well promoted and good to watch. So I found it very sad how it turned out.

But you can't blame cash-strapped councils for being reluctant to put their hands in their pockets in return for some uncertain, intangible tourism benefit. Especially not when that benefit may go to not them but to somewhere nearby but prettier, like Reeth. And also especially not when paying up would mean annoying the significant anti-cycling part of their electorate.

The death of the TdY and the similar-but-different death of Ride London convinced me that you would have to be a masochist, or insanely optimistic, or both to try to organise anything that involves closing the roads for cycling in Britain.

 

[No Ta Doctor]

Didn’t worry one Sean Kelly as in 1984 he was second at the Tour of Flanders, First at Paris Roubaix, First at the Tour of the Basque Country( he may have one all the stages) First at Bastogne Liege.

Back in the days when Liege Bastogne Liege was half the distance... 😉

 

[wakemalcolm]

Back in the days when Liege Bastogne Liege was half the distance... 😉

Tilf Bastogne Tilf is what Sean used to call it.

 

[katiewlx]

I didn't know there had been a backlash in Harrogate after the WC. What was the issue?
I was watching out on the course on two days and the communities on route were very enthusiastic and welcoming.

well local businesses were promised spectators numbering in the millions would boost their sales, as kind of the carrot to put up with the stick of the disruption.

But the crowds never materialised in such numbers, could have been the weather, could have been something else, like the assumption Harrogate was essentially "closed" for the duration with road closures and so on, or people went to spectate and just did that and went home. Which just meant footfall dropped massively during the event specifically in Harrogate, but actually the impact lasted a whole month during setup & take down as people just didnt bother going to Harrogate during that time.

Some of those local businesses hired in extra help, extra supplies to cope, and it all went to waste. The only businesses that did well it seemed were those where sponsors of the event "took them over".

and then there was the Stray, which is like a public bit of parkland, that got turned into the fanzone, which annoyed people in Harrogate for taking away their access to the park to begin with, but with the weather, and alleged actions of contractors building/taking down the setup, the placed ended up looking like a Glastonbury mudbath,and had to be closed for alot of the event, but it took £120,000 and nearly a year to restore fully.

this created a lot of local complaints and unrest,and the council in response to a report theyd commissioned which laid out these problems, made a decision to temporarily ban hosting any major events of that scale again, whilst they didnt specifically mention pro cycling races, it was certainly aimed at that.

and almost immediately following that decision they then announced the Tour de Yorkshire would not be returning to Harrogate, which threw a spanner in the TdY as theyd planned the 2020 race on using Harrogate, and had to invent a new route that bypassed Harrogate somehow very quickly, though ultimately fruitlessly as 2020 edition was cancelled anyway.

but the knock on effect of the fallout from the Harrogate worlds, was other councils in Yorkshire saw what had happened, noted the backlash and Harrogate councils actions and werent so keen to join in with the TdY cycling crowd anymore, whilst they might have supported a ToB stage, the irony was with the TdY basically blocking most of Yorkshire up in terms of cash/sponsors/routes, the ToB actively avoided the area.