The next target for the organizers of the Tour de Yorkshire is to "bring the opening stages" of La Vuelta to the county within the next three years, according to John Westerby of the LONDON TIMES. After the fourth staging of the race attracted crowds of about 2.6 million over four days, "the next stage of Yorkshire’s evolution as a cycling destination was being plotted with an eye on a second grand tour," after the "landmark" Grand Départ of the Tour de France four years ago. The Tour de Yorkshire was a byproduct of "the success of that event" and now the Vuelta promoters are keen to capitalize on the county’s "ability to generate huge crowds, estimated to be the biggest for any single sporting event" in the U.K. Vuelta Race Dir Javier Guillén spent the first two days of the race in Yorkshire in discussions with Welcome to Yorkshire CEO Gary Verity. Hopes "are high that the first two or three stages of La Vuelta could be held in the county" as early as '21. A re-running of the Grand Départ in Yorkshire "is still in the pipeline, but the Vuelta may come first." Verity: "They want to do it, we want to do it, we just have to work out the machinations around that. We can offer stunning backdrops and fantastic crowds." While the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia have "regularly taken their opening stages abroad," the Vuelta has "traditionally stayed closer to home," but started outside Spain for the third time last year, in Nimes, France, after excursions to Portugal in '97 and the Netherlands in '09 (LONDON TIMES, 5/7).
