Sunday 27 January 2013

My moment of the week - 3

Tour de Yorkshire

So the Tour de France is coming to Yorkshire in 2014. I think it's great news that once again Le Tour is coming to the UK.

I remember the wonderful day out we had when the prologue was held in London in 2007. London put on an outstanding spectacle and a warm welcome for the riders, and I am sure that Yorkshire will put on an equally outstanding show. Yorkshire has a strong reputation in cycling. Quite a few of the team GB riders are Yorkshiremen and women. The topography of Yorkshire makes for challenging cycling and athletes from there tend to be a hardy bunch!

The story goes that if Yorkshire had been a separate country in the 2012 Olympics they would have come 12th in the medals table, placing hot on the heels of Italy and Australia, and well above Spain, Switzerland and Ireland!!

As someone who grew up in Yorkshire, and who has ridden a lot in the county I look forward to watching the Tour coming through a number of roads that I've ridden on. It'll be very interesting to see how the riders deal with Tan Hill, Buttertubs Pass and Holme Moss, among other well known climbs.

The overview of the route is here.


The main local paper in the area, the Yorkshire Post gives some background information to some of the areas that the Tour will pass through.


I hope to ride around the exact route in the future and will post write-ups for those not familiar with the area.
I also imagine that as the event draws nearer we will see more and more cyclists on those lanes, just as we saw with Box Hill in the run-up to the London 2012 Olympics.

Yes, on 5th and 6th July 2014 the eyes of the world will be on Yorkshire. Eee by gum! Better mek some more Yorkshire Puddings, put more pies int' oven an' order in wads more pints o' bitter!

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