LE TOUR de France, the greatest cycle race in the world, will pass through Essex next year.
Organisers of Le Tour have traced a rough path of the route more than 200 of the world's best cyclists will take as they cut through north-west Essex on day three of the 2014 Tour.
Several villages east of the M11, including Moreton, Matching Green and North Weald could be hosting thousands of race spectators as they cheer on the current Tour champion Bradley Wiggins, and compatriots Chris Froome and Mark Cavendish.
Hoping to join that trio in the race is Alex Dowsett, a 24-year-old cyclist from Maldon, who is especially familiar with the country lanes the race could be passing through.
Dowsett, who has recently joined the Spanish team Movistar from Team Sky, said: "I am really hopeful that I will make the tour in 2014. It will be great to be riding through countryside in my home county. It will be such a buzz.
"I'm hoping to complete the Tour of Italy this year and then compete in the Tour de France next year.
"It will be especially good for me because I know the county well. The teams only take the fittest and the best eight or nine riders, but I think that having it in Essex is great."
The university city of Cambridge provides the setting for the beginning of the third day of the Tour de France when the UK hosts the Grand Départ in 2014.
Although the Tour's organisers have yet to finalise the exact route, the race is expected to pass through or very close to Saffron Walden, Takeley, Hatfield Broad Oak, and Hatfield Heath before it reaches Matching Green, Moreton and North Weald. It will then follow the A104 Epping New Road into central London where the race ends in The Mall.
John Binder, chairman of Matching Green Parish Council, said: "It's going to be great for us if it comes through here. I'm sure there will be the odd stick-in-the-mud but I would think the whole parish will be very excited to host part of the Tour de France.
"Apart from anything else, we might even get some of our potholes fixed. That will be a bonus in itself."
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