A commemorative coffee table book, Two Days in Yorkshire, has been published as a lasting memento of the 2014 Tour de France Grand Départ.
Welcome to Yorkshire have teamed up with official photographer Simon Wilkinson, who supplied stunning images to RoadCyclingUK during the Grand Départ, and his team at Yorkshire-based picture agency SWpix.com to produce the book.
Written by cycling author Peter Cossins and Welcome to Yorkshire’s Andrew Denton, Two Days in Yorkshire features more than 200 images of what was dubbed the grandest of Grand Départs.
The book reveals the inside story of how Yorkshire won the right to host the start of the 2014 race and captures the unforgettable sights, stories and memories of two historic days, which saw 2.5 million spectators line the county’s roads.
Wilkinson said: “As part of our preparations for the Tour we drove the route a few times, with stunning locations like Buttertubs popping up across both days.
I mentioned the idea of a coffee-table book to [Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive] Gary Verity and his team at the beginning of 2014. We all thought, in principle, it would make a great memento of the Grand Départ – but I had some doubts if we would actually have the material to fill a book, especially if the weather went against us.
“Now, two weeks on, we’ve been blown away by the images we’ve seen – and they are all in this book.”
Verity added: “We made history that weekend and it’s only right that there should be a record that people will keep and look through over the years to remind them of the excitement and the spectacle.
“God’s sun shone on His own county that weekend, giving us the iconic blue sky imagery of Le Tour in Yorkshire. That and the work of some very talented photographers meant we got exactly what we needed to create a brilliant book.”
Two Days in Yorkshire is a hardcover, 144-page coffee table book, available at a special introductory price of £27.50 for all orders received before the winner crosses the line at the end of the 2014 Tour de France on Sunday 27 July. Buy your copy online at www.twodaysinyorkshire.com
