For the 4.8 million people who lined England’s streets for the first three stages of the Tour de France this summer, the race itself was a fleeting affair. But while the peloton whizzed by in seconds, the memory lives on of what the Gallic organisers called the “grandest” Grand Départ in the 111-year history of the event.
The roads of Yorkshire are still marked with graffiti urging on the Brit favourite, Mark “Cav” Cavendish – a poignant reminder that the Manx sprinter didn’t even make it to stage two after crashing at the first finish in Harrogate.
The Bank View Cafe at Langsett, on the edge of the Peak District, is still covered with the same red polka dots that adorn the King of the Mountains jersey, which is awarded to the best climber; sad to report, though, the sheep in Killinghall that were sprayed yellow and green to match the other jerseys are now back to their normal hues.
Stage three of this year’s Tour went from Cambridge to London, but Yorkshire, which hosted the first two legs, was the real winner.
A recent report estimated that the race generated £128m for God’s Own County, compared with just £30m for Cambridgeshire, Essex and London. The sourpusses down south failed to embrace the Tour with the same enthusiasm as their northern counterparts – just 78% of those surveyed around stage three said the race had been good for their local area, compared with 94% of those on stage two, which wound from York to Sheffield via the West Yorkshire Brontë Country.
In Harrogate, an initiative to create bunting out of knitted yellow jerseys proved so popular that organisers had to beg locals to put down their needles after 22,000 miniature jumpers had been sent in three months before the race even started. In Otley, all 19 pubs translated their names into French to welcome the race, while at Appleton’s butchers in the market town of Ripon, the elite riders were welcomed with a bicycle made from pies. A team of 12 staff spent 24 hours perfecting their creation, using enormous pork pies for wheels, black pudding for handlebars, chipolatas for the chain and a gammon joint for the saddle.
On the Yorkshire legs, particularly on the big climbs of Holme Moss and Butter Tubs Pass, spectators cheered with such gusto that one British rider, Geraint Thomas, later said: “It was like being in a disco for four hours.”
British Cycling insists the three-day cycling jamboree has left a legacy of active cyclists across the nation. More than 95,000 people took part in British Cycling-registered events in the regions touched by the Tour de France in 2014 – a year in which total participation across all British Cycling’s recreational programmes increased by 64%.
A new international three-day stage race in Yorkshire has also been announced for 2015, with the Tour de Yorkshire cementing the region as a host of major international bike racing.
