Leader at Craven District Council "disappointed" in Tour de Yorkshire cancellation
The council had put Skipton forward as a host for the start of the race in 2022
The Leader of Craven District Council is "disappointed" at the news of next year's Tour de Yorkshire has been cancelled.
They'd put Skipton forward as a host for the start of the race, hoping it would give the town a boost in tourism after the pandemic.
Some councillors were against putting funding for the event in wake of the pandemic, but it was unanimously decided that they would utilise funding that had already been agreed for the 2020 race that had to be cancelled.
Cllr Richard Foster, leader of Craven District Council, said: "It is disappointing that it isn't going ahead and that we can't showcase the town by having the event on.
"We're obviously very busy this year with tourists but we weren't sure how that would be next year with international travel so we were banking on the Tour de Yorkshire to bring tourists in. That's why we thought it would be a good idea to show everyone we were here.
"I've always found it to be a really good community day and I'm sure people in the community will miss that. A lot of people go and watch at the side of the road or have garden parties so it's much more than just a bike race.
"We're looking forward to having the Festival of Yorkshire still to try and showcase the Yorkshire and the Dales which will be more around culture, food and drink and then maybe in a few years time we can host the bike race again."
As well as the race, Welcome to Yorkshire were planning a county wide ‘Festival of Yorkshire’ to take place in the weeks, with the race being the ‘headline act’.
Despite the race being cancelled, it is hoped the festival will be a "celebration of the whole county" highlighting local food and drink, arts, culture, heritage, and music. It will be the first and largest non-ticketed mass participation event of its kind in the UK since the pandemic in 2020.
Welcome to Yorkshire Chief Executive James Mason, said: “This has been an intense period of back and forth discussions about the 2022 Tour de Yorkshire over many months. The race is a much-loved international sports event which showcases Yorkshire across the globe.
"So many people involved in the decision making process understand just how popular the race is. We had every intention for the race to go ahead but unfortunately some of the circumstances were out of our control and sometimes you have to make big calls for the right reasons. People from Yorkshire are proud and we only want the best for the county. We still have ambitions for large events going forward to put Yorkshire on the world stage and we will continue to work with our partners to plan for those.”