Origami Girl

Sunday 6 July 2014

In which I'm at the Tour De Yorkshire

 
I've just spent the weekend watching the largest annual sporting event in the world: Le Tour De France. Strangely though, I wasn't in Paris, but in Wensleydale. The Tour was riding right my past my parents' house which was an opportunity not to miss.

The Tour De Yorkshire, as they called it, was probably the biggest thing to ever happen in Leyburn. The town, and surrounding countryside had taken the yellow theme and ran with it in everyway possible. Yellow flowers, yellow bunting and most of all yellow bikes were everywhere. My parents donated some of our old bikes for the displays and Dad's old bike was painted yellow and hung from the church tower - a good enough spot to earn a shot on the BBC news report! It's a kind of fame.

On the day of the race, it was like a mini festival in the town with every pub selling bacon sandwiches out of their front garden and a set of rival ice cream vans and hog roast sellers doing business. The whole town was packed with people, more kids than we ever knew lived in the Dale. My Dad built us a grandstand out of some tea chests, planks of wood and pieces of an old bunkbed so we could stand on top and look over the hedge as the cyclists came past.

My sister with her old bike!

My Dad's bike in pride of place on the church tower.






My mum's home-made bunting on our hedge.
 The first police motorcyclist coming through before the Caravan parade. No one quite knew what to do for all the French and English police driving past, they got half-hearted cheers because we don't generally whoop for them.
 There was then a good hour of sponsors driving by in elaborately built trucks. There were giant chips, giant sunglasses, giant Bic pens, and we were thrown freebies across our hedge by many of them. It was funny how they crossed the line from adverts to entertainment, and actually got lots of cheers.
 I love how the Yorkshire van actually looks just like our countryside.
 The man at the front! When the Tour finally arrived in town it went by in a blur, the cyclists going at 40km/hour meant I barely had time to get any photos in.
There were lots of the support cards covered in spare bikes that came through with the cyclists.
Our home built grandstand view.
My parents' house. Us and the neighbours were both making quite a thing out of the occassion.
Strangely enough it'll probably be the last time I'm there. My parents are retiring in a month and moving house, so it feels nice to have had something actually happen in the town on the last time I'm there.
Do you follow the Tour De France? Anyone happen to watch and actually see us on tv? :)

4 comments:

  1. Looks like great fun, it's nice to see everyone get in the spirit, even if they went a little bicycle crazy haha. I didn't follow along, it's not something I've been interested in but I would definitely liked to have seen them in person.

    Congrats on the prize position for your dads bike!

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  2. Hello!!?? Bacon sandwiches and ice cream?! This all makes me want to travel to Yorkshire and do some major exploring! -Jess L

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  3. This would be such an amazing thing to see in person. So very lucky!

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  4. This looks like so much fun and I love your skirt (or dress)!

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