Cycling: Three British stages to open 2014 Tour de France

PARIS (AFP) - The 2014 Tour de France will start with a stage between Leeds and Harrogate in the northern English county of Yorkshire on July 5, organisers of cycling's most prestigious and gruelling race announced on Thursday.

As will be the case for the 2013 edition, Tour director Christian Prudhomme again opted against a traditional time-trial or prologue opener, which favours the sprinters of the peloton.

The second 200km stage in 2014 will begin in York and end in the southern Yorkshire city of Sheffield.

The Tour will then travel from the university city of Cambridge in eastern England to London for the third 170km stage on July 7, passing through the Olympic Park in the east of the British capital to finish at the Mall, in the shadow of Buckingham Palace.