The opening 3 stages of the 2014 Tour de France are to be held in England. The second stage, on the 6th July 2014, a 124 mile (200km) route from York to Sheffield pays a short visit to the Peak District National Park. The route takes the riders to Holmfirth, then up the challenging climb to Holme Moss, before heading towards the finish at Sheffield, via Strines and Bradfield.
As the anticipation builds for the start of the race, some of the key facts and figures of the world’s largest annual sporting event are astounding:
- A worldwide television audience of 3.5billion people watch the Tour de France annually
- Over 188 countries around the world broadcast the Tour de France
- The Tour de France attracts 12 million spectators along the route in a typical year’s race
For more details and stage maps, the official website is a good place to start: http://letour.yorkshire.com/
For specific Peak District information, the National Park Authority has produced some helpful fact sheets, which can be found here: http://www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/visiting/grand-depart-yorkshire-2014
If you are wishing to see the event live the advice is to plan well ahead. A lot of accommodation is already booked up, so if you are planning to stay in the area try and get something organised as soon as possible, and bear in mind that on the days of the race there will be road closures along the route, which will make it difficult to travel around the area.
