At Edinburgh Castle on Thursday evening one of the first steps on Edinburgh’s journey on the Tour de France took place, as a yellow beam of light shone above the Castle.
This marked the announcement of the full route from Edinburgh to Cardiff, and other host venues also joined the light show in a coordinated Tour de Skies celebration.
The Deputy First Minister, Kate Forbes, said she thinks this will be phenomenal, particularly as it will also pass through Midlothian, the Borders and Dumfries and Galloway. She said: “It will start here on the Esplanade and the economic benefits and inspiration of watching this sporting event will be shared across towns and villages across the south of Scotland.”
Ms Forbes related her own experience of the world’s biggest annual sporting event. She said: “I did once spend all day in a remote village in France waiting for the Tour de France to pass. I think I got a good tan that day. It took about ten seconds after waiting about ten hours, but it was wonderful.”
The council leader, Jane Meagher, is keen to emphasise the economic impact which is expected from the event. She said: “This Grand Départ is the most fantastic opportunity for Edinburgh, because the eyes of the world will be on us. It will bring in such a lot of benefit to the city and it will show us off, and we’re very proud of it. We anticipate that the £1.7 million investment – and it is an investment – will bring in multiples of that. We know from our experience with other events that it brings in multi-million pounds into the local economy.”
David Somerville, Head of Performance at Scottish Cycling is very hopeful that there will be Scots in the race. He explained that two cyclists were part of the team last year. Scots Oscar Onley and Sean Flynn could well gain places on their respective teams, but it is still a while before the teams will be announced.
Read more about the route here.
The main announcement and press conference was held in Leeds where the front of Leeds Civic Hall was lit up by a dazzling visual projection that celebrated previous British Grand Départs and showcased the plans for 2027.
At the same time, beams of light – in the famous Tour de France yellow – illuminated the night sky above Millennium Square and the rest of the city centre.
