Tour de Yorkshire, Cambridge...and oh yes France as well!!

[Panwearsjaune]

T minus 35 days and counting, to the Grand Depart from Leeds 5th July, with two stages in the White County, and then a third from Cambridge to the Mall in London. It's just soo exciting! It's the biggest biking event in the world, with approx 190 professional riders in about 20 teams racing across tarmac and cobbles, up mountains and down Dales and ending on 27th July on the Champs Elysee, Paris in the now traditional sprint finish there. So here's the thread to share in it all, swop info about accommodation for Tour watchers, road closures, the parcours (courses), peloton gossip, potential meet ups, tv coverage, who's got the nicest legs etc.. and everything to do with the thrills and occasional spills with the event that is a game of poker played out every day on 380 wheels. OF course if you are a newbie to all of this and are curious about the whys and hows of racing then ask and someone will pop up to answer questions. Hopefully.

So I'll depart here next with the routes of the UK 3 stages being taken so no-one gets lost and ends up in the dreaded broom wagon.

SDTG - I'm afraid Holme Moss is being closed on the Friday! That's pretty early isn't? But they need to erect the barriers, clean the road and fix up the KOM summit thing across the top of the road. We can still ride up it though from 'our side' until an hour or so before the caravan which is due about 1pm.
I have two buddies who want to come with. One wants to ride up HM, one doesn't think he can do that.

Driving and parking. The advice from the presentation was obv 'the earlier the better'. There is a shuttle bus that you will be able to park near (if you are early enough!) that will take you the 7 miles along the A628 pretty much to the bend where the riders drop down from HM at the reservoir and they turn left back into South Yorkshire. The bus is a return ticket and they haven't settled on a price but it won't be more than £5. The section in the Peak District is 6 miles long starting from HM summit then down and along the reservoir - the organisers are estimating 40,000 people along that stretch. Glossop and Hadfield will be rammed all weekend.

IF my buddy really doesn't want to try to ride up HM, then I'm not either, (coz I'm a good buddy and won't leave him) and we will be at the turn where they come down off HM. mistle's map somewhere up there ^ was really clear about the distances in rel to everything else.

How about I PM you tomorrow and may be we can swap details so I can let you know about any developments locally, esp parking points as fields are opening up all the time as park spots?

Thanks so much for all the info, Pan - and yes, if we could swap details, that would be great! The shuttle bus sounds very promising - but dh has reminded me that we are going to friends for dinner on Saturday, so we are going to have to look at the maps, and see where we can get to.

The A628 is being closed at midnight on the Saturday.If you are driving down and wish to be near HM anywhere then it'll be best to come over the Pennines by the Snake Pass A57 from Sheffield way. Either way if you can be around Glossop some time early morning then you should be okay for parking near the bus stop.

If you make it we could have a Tour breakfast chez Pan, to keep you going for the rest of the day!

Dh is looking at the road closures for the Grand depart (he'd prefer to go down on Saturday) but North Yorkshire are closing the roads round Hawes and Gunnersdale at 10pm the night before, until 6pm on the Saturday!

When we saw a stage near Draguignan, a few years ago, the country road we parked on was closed a couple of hours before the publicity caravan went through, and opened up within an hour after the stage went through, so the Yorkshire road closures seem excessive, at best, and barking, at worst. If this is how it will be, I doubt we'll be able to go.

Thank you for the breakfast offer, though!

Breakfast you say? I'm going to go with another fabulous MN'er who is a very good friend, so we could have a real MN corner to watch them whizz by in about 5 seconds!

You're going to need a bigger notebook .

I am indeed still concussed. Its not turning out to be as fun an experience as I'd hoped. Its 3 weeks since I crashed and the headache is constant and evil. Still can't drink, can't drive, mood swings, memory loss, using wrong words for things and having to sleep at no notice.

I am told that it will just take time.

I have to get through 4 hours of training tomorrow...

Am watching highlights of today's stage of the Dauphine. 1.5km to go - I reckon Bertie is going to take Froome apart any second now.....

Yikes - that was a stage!

That was very exciting. Tomorrow should be good! I'm wondering if I can send the children away and watch it live.

Can't find coverage of beginning of tour of Switzerland but it seems that Bradley Wiggins hasn't made a great start.

Well, heavens above. I'm going to cool down in the paddling pool after that!

I only saw from 27km in, and pick up that Bertie lost it by cat and mouse with CF, spending too much admiring each other whilst Telansky just got on with it. Bad poker players.

Looks like CF just ran out of biscuits.

I don't know if you lot are on FB but the Tinkof-Saxo page is a gem, they had a brilliant one last week where they claimed Contador was invincible, cue lots of comments like 'no he isn't he was just beaten by Froome'. The latest is a gem, Contador beaten but holds the moral victory. Really? More like Contador beaten because he was too busy trying to show off

Froome got the points jersey as well so ner Contador, where's your one eh?

I think that, if Contador had worked with Froome, the two of them, plus the other Sky riders could have pulled back the breakaway and Talansky, and it could have come down to a last-minute race between the two of them, which would have been thrilling. But Contador doesn't play nicely with others, and he lost out as a result. I'd like to think he'll learn a lesson from today, but I doubt he has the necessary humility.

Ha, well indeed SDT!

Well said SDTG, I think you are quite right.

Losty you are being very childish

Hope Froome goes into the Tour with a good supply of biscuits.

Wow. That was interesting, I think Contador lost that as much as Talansky won it.

Froome needs more pie, never mind biscuits.

Do you think they'll have pie in the musettes in Yorkshire?

We have booked camping in Ilkley. According to the road closures web page the roads are being closed at 5.30 Sat morning. Anyone know anything different? I'm assuming we'll be able to drive into campsite (Rugby club site organised by Ilkley Cycling club) on the Friday as we've booked a Friday arrival

Need to get boys a day off school somehow too....

Seem to recall How was on training today. So her dh will find out his fate, and she will be armed with a whistle and a nice yellow flag hopefully.......

Just come back from Yorkshire and am amazed at the enthusiasm shown there - all those yellow bikes, bunting and events. Meanwhile down near Cambridge it is all much more muted - apart from the road closure notices everywhere.