It's been acknowledged, I believe, that the decision was made personally by the current Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. Boris is known as a keen supporter of cycling as a regular mode of urban transport - the London cycle hire scheme is universally referred to as "Boris Bikes". But I don't know if he's ever expressed a view on the competitive sporting form of cycle racing.

Even so, it seems an out-of-character decision for him to make. I wonder what the underlying motive really is.

Meanwhile something like the Tour requires you to shutdown a big part of London, set up security, set up temporary infrastructure, etc. Sure, its not as expensive as say hosting the Olympics, but I doubt its very cheap

Nonsense!

Welcome to Yorkshire (WTY) recorded a loss of £1 million on the Tour de France Grand Départ in 2014, according to a report by accountants KPMG.

Leeds County Council commissioned the accountancy firm for help and the report was filed back in February but was only released to councillors today. The tourism agency predicted a modest profit for 2014/15 but instead lost £1,031,515.

The brunt of the losses reportedly came from £750,000 worth of unsold merchandise including pens, mugs and t-shirts.

WTY continued to sell the merchandise at discounted prices after the race but still had half a million pounds worth in stock at the time of the report. Tour organisation costs came to a further £241,000 and membership to the organisation fell meaning it missed its income targets by £97,000

Read more at http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/racing/tour-de-france/welcome-to-yorkshire-records-1-million-loss-due-to-unsold-tour-de-france-merchandise-193626#ZHvw0GrAiUUsm4FH.99

London rejects 2017 Tour de France start.
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/racing/tour-de-france/london-rejects-2017-tour-de-france-start-193527
I wonder why.
Since 2013, London has been the start/finish location of the one-day RideLondon-Surrey Classic road race, which is now a UCI 1.HC category event, bringing top-level racing to the capital every year.

Labour’s London mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan condemned the decision, saying via Twitter: “By not hosting the iconic Tour de France, the Mayor and the Government are wasting a huge opportunity to show London to the world. The Tour is one of the world’s greatest sporting events. Londoners deserve to know why it’s been cancelled at the last minute.”

Sure, but those don't cost that much money to host. All the necessary infrastructure has already been put in place. All that is really expensive is security, and I assume that the organizers of such events pay for that as well. Also, aren't some of those events spread out more throughout the country?

Meanwhile something like the Tour requires you to shutdown a big part of London, set up security, set up temporary infrastructure, etc. Sure, its not as expensive as say hosting the Olympics, but I doubt its very cheap

Britain is currently hosting the World Cup of Rugby Union football (a sport which was one of the last to convert from amateur to professional status, and hence was only played at high competitive level by the independently wealthy: it's still largely supported by the middle and upper classes). We can afford that.

Not to be confused with:

Rugby League (a similar game, but professional from the outset: mainly played in the industrial north of England, where the players needed to be paid for the time they took off work)

Association Football (Soccer)

Gridiron, Aussie rules, or any other regional variations ;-)

I'm lucky enough to live in a corner of Yorkshire which was visited by the Tour twice on successive days last year, and I turned out to join the crowd on both days. They were great days out, and I can't remember seeing anyone without a smile on their face.

In future years, other cities and regions of Britain might want to bid for a day out of their own, and might put in all that hard work, all over again. If you were a member of the organising committee, would you bring the Tour back to a country where you've just been kicked in the teeth with such contempt by a senior politician?

It looks as if the Tour is likely to start in Germany next year, after this debacle. If you live nearby, and have the opportunity, go along and enjoy the atmosphere. You won't want it to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

At the same time, a lot of these big sporting events costs tons of money. Is it worth spending all that money on one sporting event? All that money you spend there is money you can't spend on other, smaller but cheaper events that people will enjoy just as much.

Bread and circuses it's called.
Started already in the roman time as a way to distract the lower classes from existing social problems and the upper classes abound.

The Tour de France detour in England dont cost anything comparing to other sports.

I'm lucky enough to live in a corner of Yorkshire which was visited by the Tour twice on successive days last year, and I turned out to join the crowd on both days. They were great days out, and I can't remember seeing anyone without a smile on their face.

In future years, other cities and regions of Britain might want to bid for a day out of their own, and might put in all that hard work, all over again. If you were a member of the organising committee, would you bring the Tour back to a country where you've just been kicked in the teeth with such contempt by a senior politician?

It looks as if the Tour is likely to start in Germany next year, after this debacle. If you live nearby, and have the opportunity, go along and enjoy the atmosphere. You won't want it to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

At the same time, a lot of these big sporting events costs tons of money. Is it worth spending all that money on one sporting event? All that money you spend there is money you can't spend on other, smaller but cheaper events that people will enjoy just as much.

I dont think Chris Froome will like that...

I'm not sure whether Chris will allow me to post this in his five-year thread, but here goes. It looks as if politicians have an event horizon closer to 24 hours.

Tour de France 2017: London turns down chance to host start

London beat bids from Edinburgh, Manchester and several German regions to stage the Grand Depart.

But last week, a day before contracts were meant to be signed, Transport for London (TfL) said it was pulling out.

Excuse me, but you don't "beat" a bid or sign a "contract" without an awful lot of time, effort (and something else I'm not going to demean myself by mentioning) being spent by an awful lot of people. "Turns down chance" in the headline makes it sound like a lottery - which I'm sure it wasn't.

That was yesterday. Today, we have

Tour de France 2017: Boris Johnson says it was 'not worth' London hosting

Mr Johnson said: "I'm afraid I have got to put my hands up here and say I took the decision not to go forward with it.

I'm lucky enough to live in a corner of Yorkshire which was visited by the Tour twice on successive days last year, and I turned out to join the crowd on both days. They were great days out, and I can't remember seeing anyone without a smile on their face.

In future years, other cities and regions of Britain might want to bid for a day out of their own, and might put in all that hard work, all over again. If you were a member of the organising committee, would you bring the Tour back to a country where you've just been kicked in the teeth with such contempt by a senior politician?

It looks as if the Tour is likely to start in Germany next year, after this debacle. If you live nearby, and have the opportunity, go along and enjoy the atmosphere. You won't want it to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Future? What future?

Just WTH is wrong with our construction industry Ozzie?

Nothing like a good back-stabbing to move on the political debate.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/sep/21/piggate-hameron-twitter-react-david-cameron-pig-head-claims

Is there anyone that From #piggate to #Hameron is fun?
First of all it's nor a debate or a discussion.
Come to think of Russel Brand who can pass the line sometimes.

No thanks Nickerless, we prefer Mature Adults...

"Comeback kids"

...however, with pigs in the air, nice future to look forward to!

Nothing like a good back-stabbing to move on the political debate.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/sep/21/piggate-hameron-twitter-react-david-cameron-pig-head-claims

In his defence, it was probably wearing lipstick.

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Reality Internet Personality

Nothing like a good back-stabbing to move on the political debate.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/sep/21/piggate-hameron-twitter-react-david-cameron-pig-head-claims

Ah, the old Lyndon B Johnson ruse, "carnal knowledge of his own barnyard sows".

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Life on earth is the global equivalent of not storing things in the fridge.

Nothing like a good back-stabbing to move on the political debate.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/sep/21/piggate-hameron-twitter-react-david-cameron-pig-head-claims

Nice. I particularly like this: -

"David Cameron, on the other hand appeared red faced and defensive, sniping back with all too familiar rhetoric about supporting the aspirations of the people of Britain. The full-time score of JCs first PMQs was certainly 1-0 to Corbyn; it would appear that slow and steady will win the race for him. Maybe he isn’t such a national risk after all?"

Reminds me of much on here. :-)

Snip

And I don't just mean his attire which is slovenly.

Looks smart enough here

Its better than having someone who's all suit and no substance. I find attacks on his appearance a little annoying as he dresses like lots of hard working people from non-oxford backgrounds.

Here are some reviews on his first question time: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/sep/16/pmqs-verdict-corbyns-presented-as-an-extremist-but-he-came-across-as-moderate?

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Reality Internet Personality

Snip

And I don't just mean his attire which is slovenly.

Looks smart enough here

Now that's more like it! This new style of PMQs is a massive improvement.

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Life on earth is the global equivalent of not storing things in the fridge.

Snip

And I don't just mean his attire which is slovenly.

Looks smart enough here

So Jeremy Corbyn didn't sing the national anthem... so what? He's been scatter gunned across the media for the past 5 weeks in a multitude of contradictory stories, why should this be different?
He'll never be prime minister anyway, why does it matter?

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Life on earth is the global equivalent of not storing things in the fridge.

Dennis Skinner on Jeremy Corbyn BBC news 14.09.2015

I love the end.

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Reality Internet Personality