Yorkshire hosts the Grand Depart on 5th July 2014, with the stage starting in Leeds and taking in the Yorkshire Dales before finishing in Harrogate, spiritual home of cycling in the UK, where CTC was founded in 1878.
Stage two of the 2014 Tour starts in York, snakes through Keighley and Huddersfield and then drops to Sheffield.
Tour director Christian Prudhomme has revealed the route at a reception in Paris this morning. He’s also due at a launch event in Leeds at 5pm today. BikeBiz will be at that event, and covering it live, including with video. UPDATE: Gallery of pix from the event has been uploaded to Flickr.
"Bradley Wiggins’ historical victory last July and the enormous crowds that followed the cycling events in the streets of London during the Olympic Games encouraged us to go back [to the UK] earlier than we had initially planned," said Prudhomme.
The third day of the Tour in the UK will start in Cambridge and end on the Mall in London.
STAGE ONE
Leeds – Harewood – Otley – Ilkley – Skipton – Kettlewell – Aysgarth – Hawes – Reeth – Leyburn – Ripon – Harrogate
STAGE TWO
York – Knaresborough – Silsden – Keighley – Haworth – Hebden Bridge – Elland – Huddersfield – Holmfirth – Sheffield
STAGE THREE
Cambridge – Epping Forest – the Olympic Park – the Mall