WHEN tourism bosses predicted hosting a cycle race would boost Yorkshire's economy by £100m, eyebrows were raised while others scoffed.

At an understated ceremony in Leeds today (Thursday), five months after millions of cycling fans, families and the curious watched the Tour de France whirr through the county, the same tourism bosses emanated a quiet air of satisfaction.

Analysts, using the same methodologies that were employed to examine the financial impact of events such as the London 2012 Olympics, concluded in an official report on the event that it had injected £102m into the county's economy.

The study, which featured a host of national surveys, found 1.1m people had travelled to Yorkshire to watch the event, pumping an extra £20.7m into the accommodation sector and £67.2m into the tills of other firms.

Aside from the £102m, a cultural festival to celebrate the tour attracted 800,000 visitors, generating an additional £10m of benefits for an investment of £2m.

The chairman of the organisers, Sir Rodney Walker, said the overwhelmingly positive report was a fair reflection of the event's success.

He said staging the Grand Depart had cost the public purse about £30m, meaning for every £1 invested five pounds would be ploughed back into the region's coffers.

The ceremony heard leading councillors had believed funding the event had been "a massive risk in terms of convincing people that it was worth doing".

Those who had been nervous said the gamble had paid off, richly.

North Yorkshire County Council leaders said they were thrilled with the returns and that taxpayers had been given value for money.

Cabinet member for highways, Councillor Gareth Dadd, who oversaw improvements to the race route, said: "There certainly has been a buzz around North Yorkshire in the months following the Grand Depart.

"My area of Thirsk, which is some miles from the race route, is doing very well indeed and I see the benefits as very much long-term following the priceless exposure we got."

Anna Lupton, of bed and breakfast Carr House Farm in Ampleforth, near Thirsk, said seeing the race whet the appetite of their foreign guests to stay longer, while she had hosted five Koreans who detoured to Yorkshire on their way from London to Edinburgh.

She said: "They stayed overnight with us before heading into the Dales, a direct change of plan due to having watched footage of Le Tour.

"We have had numerous bookings now from Holland, France and Germany. I know that all this extra business is directly coming from Le Tour.”

In the village of Wensley, in the Yorkshire Dales, which the peloton passed ahead of negotiating the Buttertubs Pass, Jen White, of White Rose Candle Workshop, said while the tourist season had been extremely busy, she had been staggered by the number of visitors over the past two months.

She said the unseasonal trade meant she could continue employing staff through the winter months.

Mrs White said: "People are saying they saw the area on television and thought it was amazing.

"A lot of our business is based on repeat customers - once they come they return again and again, so I think we will feel the impact much more next year than this."

Sir Rodney said while many businesses are experiencing a boom, it was apparent numerous others that had invested in enterprises for the Grand Depart had not benefitted from the event.

He said: "For example, there were people that spent money developing campsites.

"Some were hugely successful, others missed out on the profits.

"It is important to remember that this is just a snapshot in time.

"If you look at the Barcelona and Sydney Olympics you know the benefits continue for up to ten years."

He said his organising team, which featured more than 100 public and private organisations, had overspent by £3m, due to extra health and safety provisions for the higher than expected number of spectators who turned out.

The overspend will be divided among the 27 councils that backed the event.

He said: "It is undoubtedly the biggest event ever of its type that has taken place in Yorkshire."

The ceremony in Leeds heard the worldwide showcase and spin-offs would never have been possible without the audacity shown by Yorkshire tourism chief Gary Verity in bidding £4m for the rights to stage the event.

When it was highlighted to him that the £102m economic impact figure was close to the one he predicted two years ago, he simply smiled.

Mr Verity, who is organising the first of an annual international three-day race - the Tour de Yorkshire - in May as a legacy of the Grand Depart, said many people had thanked him for the best weekend of their lives.

He said: "Yorkshire stock has never been higher and I would like the Grand Depart to be the beginning and not the end."