Tuesday, 1 July 2014

Awaiting the Tour in Yorkshire

As Cambridgeshire and Essex prepare for the third day of the Tour de France on Monday 7th July, Mike Stapleton reports on how excitement is building in Yorkshire for the first and second days.

Mike writes: I have just come back from a holiday in Yorkshire where there is a fantastic carnival spirit all along the route of the tour. There are yellow bikes everywhere outside pubs, farm gates and houses and some house walls even painted white with red spots! Bunting displays made up of knitted jerseys of various colours are hanging between trees, lamp posts and in windows as are flags representing tour colours and different nations.

Muker King of the Mountains tea shop

There are leaflets in all the Tourist Offices and incredible memorabilia such as the Tee Shirt with sheep I have pictured. The sheep could be a real problem they don't get out of the road when cars come so I wonder what will happen when the Tour passes...

Yellow bike in Settle

The route for stage one is amazing- hardly flat! There are some short steep climbs but then some steep descents to tee junctions and the roads are very narrow and winding in places with narrow bridges to negotiate. The best bits should be between Skipton and Leyburn.

Spare bike at Muker in Swaledale

The numbers of cyclists I saw on the route was very high.

Shop window in Settle

I went out this morning to see what efforts Cambridge has made to welcome the Tour. For a world renowned "Cycling city" I was very disappointed. It would seem that the tour is just an inconvenience to other road users. The road signage is minimal here compared to Yorkshire. I only saw two decorated bikes in front of the Leys School. Has anyone seen any other displays? Mike Stapleton

TdF teeshirt and sheep

Map of the Tour in Yorkshire
Posted by Nigel at

2 comments:

  1. Conrad Chua1 July 2014 at 05:54

    I too have been disappointed at the lack of any kind of meaningful buzz not just in Cambridge but along the Stage 3 route. I went out on Saturday to recce the route for Sunday's ride that I am leading and all I could see from Cambridge to Felsted was the depressing line of yellow parking warning signs. There was some half-hearted bunting (there was at least some effort made at the turn in Shalford) but nothing memorable. Hopefully things will improve before the weekend.

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  2. Jule2 July 2014 at 14:55

    I think there will also be some knitted mini jersey bunting in Cambridge: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-27731786
    And apparently it's safe even when wet:
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-27979727

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