Yorkshire beat off competition from Edinburgh and Florence for the privilege. The Edinburgh bid was almost bound to fail since the executive authorities at go ahead Carlton cricket club had not been asked to endorse the bid. This meant that the possibility of offering the Tour officials an afternoon at Grange Loan watching Fantasy Bob toil up the hill and against the wind - which most informed commentators reckon to be the equal of any feat of endurance or skill in the Tour de France - was overlooked. It would have been irresistible to the Tour. But for that lack of imagination the bid was lost. It may be that the organisers of Edinburgh's bid feared that FB would be fully occupied in the summer of 2014 at the Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup. They should know that FB is made of sterner stuff.
FB would have been pleased to offer his services to Florentine authorities, but there appears to have been a similar lack of imagination there too.
Good luck to Yorkshire. FB was intrigued to note that the person leading the bid and the Chief Executive of Welcome to Yorkshire is Gary Verity. He wonders if he can be any relation to the great Yorkshire and England cricketer Hedley Verity who tragically lost his life in action during World War 2. By any reading of the records Verity was one of the greatest and dismissed Bradman in Tests more often than any other bowler. His views on cycling are not clear.
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