Sir - Ever since it was mooted that Yorkshire were making a bid to bring the Worlds biggest annual sporting event to God's own county I have been a firm supporter of the initiative and believe it will bring numerous long term benefits.

But as an owner/operator in a Dales based tourism business I am getting a little tired of the blind, unquestioning, sycophantic support for the event Welcome to Yorkshire seem to want us all to offer it.

I have been trying to understand and discover why my business is approx 15% down year on year from last year and having eliminated or taken into account as many other factors as I can, the conclusion is inevitably becoming more and more round to us experiencing a "London Olympic" effect, a la 2012.

As I am not the only one facing a similar downturn in business, I conclude it cannot be a sharp decline in the way I run my business.

The fewer than usual guests I have had, have in general, and usually unprompted, commented on how difficult it is to get around because of the increased number of cyclists on the already tight Dales road network, and of course the road works.

I have to date had 2 (TWO) guests all year who have come to stay and cycle around the area as a direct result of the publicity brought about by Le Grand Depart, and one of them managed to bump into Sir Chris Hoy whilst filming on Buttertubs, so he was very, very happy!

However, that is perhaps not surprising when documents supplied to me by WTY to try and prove the economic case actually state:

"Single day cycle trips are almost 100 times more frequent in volume to those covering more than one day"

That will explain all of the cyclists, the cars parked in passing places and the discarded water bottles and energy bar wrappers everywhere but little extra business!

Similarly, almost without exception, the tourist businesses that MIGHT benefit from the vast numbers of day visitor cyclists (e.g. cafes & tea rooms) almost universally state they are amongst the lowest spend per head customers they get.

So in the short term, we have much more congestion on the Dales roads, largely caused by visitors who want to benefit from our wonderful country side but not pay for the privilege. (Don't get me going on how cyclists do not pay anything towards road maintenance or carry insurance to cover the cost of accidents they are the cause of!).

I really do believe the two days the Tour graces us with its presence will act as a brilliant shop window for us to show what a truly unique and beautiful part of the world we live in and thus will stimulate people from all over the world to come and have it look at it for themselves.

But let us not kid ourselves that becoming a playground for hoards of cyclists will do anything other that cause significantly higher blood pressure for other road users, many of whom are visitors themselves adding far more into the local economy than cyclists will ever do!

Bob Marchant