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.

Took a detour today and drove up Holme Moss from 'our' descent side. The sight from the summit is utterly beautiful - the Dark Peaks will laid out in front of them. A lot like Antrim in the Giro. Take living round here for granted way way too much.

and saw a Sky rider on a Pinarello with a car following behind - a serious training session then.

My parents live in Knaresborough and it's on lockdown for 18 hours before so we're going to take our bikes and just get where we can, seeing as much as we can. We have the bits from the local paper and the road closure notices so it will be fun. Dh and dd2 are going to the thing in Leeds before hand too. V excited.

We are seriously considering flying down to London City airport, because stage 3 goes past very close to the terminal. Dh works for the railway, so we could get the train back,up, and it wouldn't cost much more than the petrol to drive down to Yorkshire from Glasgae.

Why dont you get the train right to Knaresborough - it goes through there?

Glasgow to York is about 3 hours and York to Knarseborough 30 mins plus you can take your bikes

Unfortunately I weigh muttermutter far too many stones and haven't been on a bike in 30+ years, so cycling to a good spot to view it isn't going to be possible for me, Awks.

WendyCraig - this seems to confirm the 5.30am closures.

Knaresborough - it looks as though most roads will be open until Sunday morning at 4am: here

Not sure about trains, local news a couple of weeks ago said that they are going to be rammed and no chance of taking a bike on. On Sunday train from York via knaresborough to Harrogate will be disrupted as race going through starbeck over the level crossing.

Some people have flags by their names! Testing testing.

Ha! Look at that. Shame Wales isn't in the world cup now, I'd have liked a little dragon flag. Will I get lynched for not having England do you think?

Park on Holme Moss...ha ha. Loads of roads closed and local paper says you must park near Holmfirth and walk ( about 2 hours!)

I am trained. I may or may not be standing on a hazard with a whistle and a yellow flag in hi-viz. I am more likely to be operating a pedestrian crossing in the centre of Knaresborough. I find out on the day. Whatever happens I will be very close to the

Either way, my uniform is so huge, I can wear the jacket as a frock and the trousers (once zipped to shorts) are comedy 3/4 length and flappy. I shall be cracking out the sewing machine and effecting some snazzy modifications.

DH is directing people to the loo in Ripon.

They have done a lot of crowd-behaviour analysis and reckon people will be in place for up to 6/7 hours. The entire shebang will take about 2.5-3 hours to go past any single point.

The roads will close pretty promptly as per the timings on the website as the route will then be needed to transport stewards, Tourmakers, barriers etc.. There will still be significant vehicular traffic on the route itself so take that into account if you are going to cycle on it.

3 hour prior to race, the police will clear the route.
2 hours to race, the caravan will come through and last about 45 minutes.
1 hour before there is a series of police bikes and then the police, commissaire and VIP cars.
Then the peloton, followed by race cavalcade, team cars and support vehcles, etc..
They estimate 15-20 minutes for the race convoy to pass through.

According to my handbook, Ilkey road closures are from 05:30 on Saturday so you should get in OK on the Friday night Wendy. The big climbs at Buttertubs and Holme Moss are closing early to traffic on the Friday - I think to stop people driving up and parking in the way.

Fun facts for you, pop-pickers:
82 police motorbikes - 42 UK, 40 French
440 vehicles
2,600 Press
10,000 Tour makers
14,500 hotel rooms booked in Yorkshire.

Happy to help!

That's so cool HowGood! Nice info too.

I don't suppose there was info on 'where to watch if you cannot walk more than half a mile or stand waiting for hours'? I bet the answer is 'on TV'! Bugger, ah well, I'll get a much better view that way I suppose.

Lost I think you are restricted to City Centres where you wouldn't have to walk too far from the station. THat pretty much means Leeds, Otley, Ilkey, Skipton or Harrogate for Stage 1 (DH says the route is a bit of a walk out of Ripon) or York, KNaresborough, Keighley, Huddersfield or Sheffield for Stage 2. Inevitably those areas will be more crowded.

You may find that going to one of the Hubs and soaking up the atmosphere is your best bet and reserve watching the race for the TV. That is certainly going to be my approach as I have two small kids who won't be up for sitting for 6 hours by the side of a rural road!

City Centers are a pain too really, no where to sit down! Plus I need to stay west of the race really to get there and back. More thinking needs to be done, I don't suppose they'll give me a steroid infusion just so I can go to the tour . It's worth asking I suppose . It's time like this I just want to stamp my feet (very, VERY gently) and shout 'NOT FAIR' like my seven year old!

Shooting stick?

There are quite a number of spectator hubs though - and places like Harrogate I understand that they're getting stands etc. if you look here then choose the map and then put in the option 'show spectator hubs' on the drop down menu on the LHS you should get more info.

See it's the "being in place for 6-7 hours" that worries me. I have two sons who do not do "in place" or "waiting patiently". They rotate in circles and start fighting if I'm not first in line at the checkout in the supermarket.

Though as we're walking I reckon we can leave it a bit later, she says hopefully? I can imagine getting so fed up with spinning children that I march us back home again before the race comes through!

Lost is this an option?
www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news_all/11268737.Disabled_fans_offered_view_of_Tour_de_France_climax/?ref=arc

yes the 'be in place 100 years prior to the event' is a bit . I can imagine various committee members scaring each other and trying to out do other members about how 'safe and realistic' their input is, hence the prep is for a zombie invasion, and not giving any credance to peoples' circs and good sense. It's a joyous event which shouldn't be wet blanketed by jobsworths.

It looks like the only thing to do is to hire an enormous camper van for the MN peloton to share, and for you all to set up camp somewhere strategic the day before the event

FWIW the organisers of the Giro were saying spectators needed to be in place hours before the finish in Belfast & Dublin, but we managed to arrive quite late & still got decent spots.

It's coming past the end of my road on its way to Holme Moss.

There will be parking in fields around Holmfirth ( with a long walk) but I can't see people being able to get close unless they camp or get dropped off at 3am!

Well DS1 has just told me he's putting me on bed rest for the next three weeks so I'll be ok. Which sounds brilliant but he is yet to spontaneously pick up a sock let alone stack the dishwasher without intense scrutiny, so we'll see about that! It does sound like some committee have got together and tried to out scare each other, if it's like our lot round here they are whinging about all the money people will bring to the area . Anyway, I will review nearer the time, my big problem is boys and school because DS1 has started his GCSE coursework and he's on some fast track science thingy so can't miss lessons, so we are restricted to the Sunday anyway and then making it back for Monday lessons. If you think about it, it was here in the UK in 2007 so it probably won't be too long before it comes back again, I shall make my own bid for it to come past my house .

Endoplasmic those disabled stands are a brilliant thing, how lovely for the people who get to be in them. Sadly a) I haven't applied for any of the things you need to get in there and b) I wouldn't be able to take all three boys. I may make a special t-shirt with a clear plastic pouch for my blue badge and wear it though, so when I elbow people out of the way they still have to be nice to me . How is your head today? That concussion sounds awful, really I should know a lot about head injuries but I had no idea a concussion could last so long. Take care of yourself now, do lots of resting and insist on people waiting on you hand and foot.

So has Wiggo made an impact in Switzerland yet? I tried to watch some of the footage today but they inconveniently put it on around school pick up time so the most info I could glean was that it looked a bit chilly.

..