150,000 BACKING LE BID
Published on: 2nd August 2012
Welcome to Yorkshire’s bid to bring the Tour de France Grand Depart to the county has stepped up a gear after Olympic Gold medallist Bradley Wiggins became the first Brit to win the Tour de France.
WTY's Back le Bid campaign has now seen more than 150,000 pledges of support - including supportive comments from French President Francois Hollande - for the biggest annual sporting event in the world to come to Yorkshire.
So please spread the word to Back le Bid at www.yorkshire.com/backlebid
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Wiggins and Froome hail cycling fans
Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome have thanked the thousands of cycling fans who turned out to cheer them through yesterday’s time-trial at Hampton Court Palace.
Wiggins won gold, his seventh Olympic medal to put him ahead of Sir Steve Redgrave, and Chris Froome finished third behind Tony Martin of Germany for the bronze medal.
But apart from the result, it is the crowds who packed the course and the support they gave Wiggins, Froome, Lizzie Armitstead and Emma Pooley which will live long in the memory.
“You’d have to be deaf not to hear it,” Wiggins said.“The noise was incredible. I’m never going to experience anything like that again in my sporting career.
“That’s it now topped off there and it was phenomenal, it really was.”
Froome said: “I almost expected today just to be like another stage of the Tour with lots of people on the sides of the road and you just cruise past them without taking it in too much.
“But it was something very different to that. It was certainly something I’ll never forget. Literally, the roads were lined with people not just cheering but screaming our names and it just gives me goosebumps thinking about it.”
Both medallists intend to stay in London for now – Wiggins is planning to watch the team pursuit, the event in which he won two of his seven Olympic medals, as well as Sir Chris Hoy in the keirin.
Today marks the start of the track cycling programme. Qualifying in the team pursuit is first before Hoy, Philip Hindes and Jason Kenny take on the men’s team sprint and Victoria Pendleton and Jess Varnish the women’s.
