London has turned down the chance to host the start of the 2017 Tour de France, just one day before contracts were due to be signed.
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London hosted the Grand Depart in 2007 and the finish of the Tour’s third stage in 2014 after it started in Yorkshire.
Edinburgh and Manchester had also been keen to host the Grand Depart 2017, but Tour organiser Amaury Sport Organisation selected London.
The historic event in 2007 was credited with reviving the British public’s interest in cycling and generating an estimated £123m for the city, but Transport for London, which is in charge of London’s bid, decided at the last minute that the cost of hosting in 2017 would be too high.
Johnson said the choice was “entirely my call”.
“I will not waste cycling money on something that would only deliver very brief benefits”, he explained.
“The return on investment was either between five or six times, which is a pretty good return on investment I think in anybody’s books and the long-term legacy benefits for us of hosting the Tour de France are still being seen”, he said.
A return across The Channel just three years after the hugely successful Yorkshire Grand Depart would have been a surprise and it might dilute the enthusiasm for cycling’s biggest race if it were to be staged so soon after its most recent visit.
But Transport for London will still continue to spend the £30m promised for funding Boris Johnson and Joanna Lumley’s Garden bridge project, while the Department for Transport will contribute a further £30m.
“To ensure value for money we must make hard choices”, said Daniels. “Don’t know the details but if I had to choose, I’d spend it on infrastructure as well”, he wrote in a tweet.
“That said, why bid in the first place?”
Labour mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan said: “The Government has wasted a huge opportunity to sell London to the world and bring one of the world’s greatest sporting events back to London”.
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As many have pointed out, however, Mr Johnson still supports TfL paying £30 million towards the controversial proposals to build the so-called Garden Bridge across the Thames – which will also attract ongoing annual maintenance costs.
