Downloadable maps: Where to see the Tour de France in Yorkshire

THE 2014 Grand Depart of the Tour de France will cover 120 miles through some of the best known parts of the Yorkshire Dales and surrounding countryside.

The race begins on July 5, 2014, outside Leeds’s historic Town Hall. Riders will pass famous Yorkshire locations including Harewood House and Ilkley Moor, and the first yellow jersey of the tour will be presented in Harrogate.

The second stage, which will be 125 miles long, includes perhaps the most famous climb in British cycling - up Holme Moss, near Huddersfield.

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It will also pass through Holmfirth, famous as the location of the long-running BBC comedy Last of the Summer Wine.

This will be the second time Britain has hosted the Grand Depart and the fourth visit in all following a single stage in Plymouth in 1974 and two across the south of England 20 years later.

The world’s most famous bike race begins outside France every other year.

But some major Yorkshire cities, including Bradford, missed out when the route was announced. Another area tipped for inclusion which did not make the final Yorkshire route is Scarborough and the county’s East Coast.