London has rejected the chance to host the Tour de France Grand Depart in 2017, Transport for London revealed on Monday.
The English capital was asked to host part of the world’s most prestigious cycling race again after successful visits in 2007 and last year.
London hosted the 2007 Grand Depart and hosted the finish for the third stage of last year’s Tour, which began in Leeds. However, the race will not be returning in two years time, according to Leon Daniels, managing director of Surface Transport at Transport for London, who are reported to have pulled out a day before contracts were due to be signed.
“We have loved hosting the Tour de France in 2007 and 2014, both of which were amazing events that inspired thousands of new cyclists and showcased London as a world class city for cycling,” Daniels said. “We have always said that the return of the Tour was subject to funding. To ensure value for money, we must make difficult choices, and on this occasion we have decided that we will not be hosting the Grand Depart in 2017.”
The first two stages of last year’s Tour were held in Yorkshire, attracting an estimated 4 million spectators and boosting the economy by £100 million (US$151.9 million).
TfL contributed £6 million to the Grand Depart budget of £27 million.
With the possibility of major cuts to transport spending across the UK, it is believed TfL and the Greater London Authority decided the city could not afford a third visit from the Tour.
This year’s race, won by Chris Froome, started in Utrecht, Holland and next year’s edition begins in the Manche region, near Mont St Michel, in northern France.
Edinburgh and Manchester have also noted interest in hosting the Grand Depart and Tour organizer Amaury Sports Organisation remains keen to take advantage of Britain’s love of the sport.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
A soccer jersey carrying a national map including disputed Western Sahara has become a hot commodity in Morocco after a diplomatic dispute with Algeria. Retailers said RS Berkane jerseys have been flying off the shelves after a Confederation of African Football (CAF) Cup match against Algerian club USM Alger was canceled last month over the jerseys. “We are overwhelmed by the influx of messages and requests,” said Brahim Rabii, representative of the official RS Berkane jersey distributor. Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco in 2021, partly over the issue of Western Sahara. The former Spanish colony is largely controlled by Morocco, but claimed