Tour de France

Now we have something / quite-a-lot to discuss and celebrate.
k.graham1
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Joined: 24 Oct 2008, 7:09pm
Location: hampshire

Tour de France

Post by k.graham1 »

My wife and I will be travelling up from Southampton to Yorkshire to view the tour.
We have booked two nights accommodation in Wetherby on Saturday 5th and Sun 6th July.
Can anybody suggest good places to get to, to view the tour, either by car or public transport ?
Any suggestions would be appreciated
thirdcrank
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Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 2:44pm

Re: Tour de France

Post by thirdcrank »

Although Wetherby is in Leeds, it's by no means part of it. Without actually consulting a bus timetable, I'm prepared to wager that it has some of the worst bus services - in terms of frequency and extent of routes in the whole of Leeds. The railway station was closed by Beeching.

I should have thought that without a lot of planning and ingenuity, public transport might only get you to see stage starts and finishes eg Leeds and Harrogate.

Local public transport within West Yorkshire, of which Leeds is a part, is under the aegis of West Yorkshire Metro.

http://www.wymetro.com/howtogetto/

A large part of the TdeF route is in North Yorkshire and Wetherby is on the boundary between West and North Yorkshire..

http://www.northyorks.gov.uk/article/25851

Wetherby is pretty central for the TdeF route, especially the Leeds to Harrogate stage so the only real problem with using a private motor transport would be parking anywhere where everybody else had decided it would be a good place to watch.
Mark1978
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Location: Chester-le-Street, County Durham

Re: Tour de France

Post by Mark1978 »

The answer is, of course, straight forward. Ride your bike from Wetherby to a place on the route to watch the racing.
awparker
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Joined: 11 Jan 2007, 2:34pm

Re: Tour de France

Post by awparker »

Living in N. Leeds I too am looking a the best options.

For the TdF there is as yet little local detail of the timings, road closures, parking options etc. Much of the route, once away from the towns, is on fairly narrow roads bounded by dry stone walls with very limited space for cars to be parked. I did hear that the authorities will be very robust in craning problem vehicles out of the way.

We are seeing some extra campsites open, but no info on farmers opening fields for parking yet. See:

www.velofest.co.uk

www.lecampsiteharrogate.weebly.com

I have put my name down as volunteer Tourmaker but have no idea what if anything I shall be doing. When this is known we plan to cycle to any point we can, maybe with car assist to somewhere well off route, or to put the Bromptons on a bus or train.

I will try and post any local details as they become available.

Alan
thirdcrank
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Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 2:44pm

Re: Tour de France

Post by thirdcrank »

I've seen very little official info anywhere about arrangements for spectators. There's also no local precedent to go by. We have had European pro racing around here before, in the form of the now defunct Leeds Classic, but the spectator interest then was largely from committed cycling enthusiasts. We know that the last couple of visits of the TdeF to England brought out the general public, and that was before Brits had won back-to-back editions. Unlike the routes in the Home Counties, much of the route around here, especially the best bits will be relatively remote from urban areas, so less opportunity for casual spectators to see it go by their front door, pub or school.

It's obvious that knowledgeable spectators will head for the uphill bits. Holme Moss used to be tackled twice by the Leeds Classic so it attracted quite a crowd. I used to ride up there (it's only a few miles from here) but the dispersing crowd always seemed to include plenty of people who must have walked some distance to get up there. Crag Vale seems to have been the subject of a lot of local advance publicity. There is a fully operational railway station at the foot of the climb.

I presume that anybody who owns anything remotely suitable for use as a car park, especially in places like the Dales will be expecting to make a killing. The estates of the Duke of Devonshire (Cavendish Settlement?) own a lot of land in the National Park and I'd expect them to be on the ball. Bearing in mind the obvious need for passenger transport to the parts of the route in open country, especially the Dales, you might expect that some form of public transport might be organised, probably as part of some sort of packages.

Sunday 5 Jan brought quite a bit of publicity from the organisers as it marked 6 months to go. Apart from promises that everything would be all right on the night, the only bit of concrete info I noticed was the predictable choice of the recently opened Leeds Arena for the team presentations. Presumably, more info will trickle out as time passes.

On the subject of volunteer helpers, I saw something recently saying that they were twice over-subscribed in that they wanted 10,000 and 20,000 have come forward. It sounds as though the majority will not be lining the route but will be asked to do other things. Perhaps their numbers will fall a bit when the duties are allocated. :?
thirdcrank
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Re: Tour de France

Post by thirdcrank »

I had lunch yesterday in a boozer which will be handy for the big race and read a copy of the local rag, which has featured on the forum before in connection with the TdeF

Although the headline refers to "detailed plans" you have to wonder. Most mountain stages in the TdeF have been established for decades, even if there's a bit of fiddling with stage towns and the occasional new climb. This means that every bit of space that can be exploited for parking etc has been identified years ago. The centralised organisation of public services means they all follow one plan. And above all, everybody, even those who can't stand bike racing know the score.

http://www.cravenherald.co.uk/news/1093 ... ?ref=var_0

PS I'm not suggesting that the two Yorkshire sstages in 2014 are climbing stages like the Alps or Pyrenees, but the moorland terrain with narrow roads and dry stone walls won't lend themselves to invasion by motor traffic expecting roadside parking.
colin54
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Re: Tour de France

Post by colin54 »

Spotted this today if it's useful for any one
P1040927 (640x360).jpg
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cycleruk
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Location: Lancashire

Re: Tour de France

Post by cycleruk »

You'll never know if you don't try it.
Ben@Forest
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Re: Tour de France

Post by Ben@Forest »

awparker wrote:We are seeing some extra campsites open, but no info on farmers opening fields for parking yet.


Living just outside the Dales National Park I have heard that the National Park Authority (without quite ripping up the rulebook) are going to be very lenient on farmers opening up fields for parking and camping. I think this is the only thing they can do, and they'd prefer cars parked on semi-improved pasture compared to SSSI moorland, where there are often grips and ditches which will be like tank traps to big Italian motorhomes.
awparker
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Joined: 11 Jan 2007, 2:34pm

Re: Tour de France

Post by awparker »

I received an email last night asking me to start the registration process to be a Tourmaker. As might be expected the website was very busy and crashed a couple of times on me. A phone call to their helpline got a recorded message to try again later today.

Much better luck this morning when I managed to register and complete quite a lengthy application form. The closing date for this stage is Feb 28th and duties (if any) will be announced by the end of April.

Locally here in Leeds there has been no further notice about road closures etc.

Alan
awparker
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Joined: 11 Jan 2007, 2:34pm

Re: Tour de France - road closures

Post by awparker »

Limited information on road closures etc is beginning to appear on the Leeds City Council website

www.leeds.gov.uk/ granddepartleeds

Alan
awparker
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Joined: 11 Jan 2007, 2:34pm

Re: Tour de France

Post by awparker »

I received an email over the weekend confirming my success in applying to be a Tour Maker and announcing the next stages of the training - some on line, some face to face. A reply to this email is required fairly quickly so if you have not received an expected invite you might need to chase it up asap.

Locally in Leeds the paper reported 12000 applications had been accepted. I read earlier that 20000 had been received and 10000 were required.

No more info on road closures, parking or viewing sites etc yet

Watch this space!

Alan
rfryer
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Re: Tour de France

Post by rfryer »

The web site talks about road closures from 7am. Does anybody know if those are complete closures, or just to cars?

For example, I'd hope to cycle to a point where I can view the tour from the roadside, somewhere in north west Yorkshire. Are they really saying that I've got to be in position by 7 in the morning?
thirdcrank
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Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 2:44pm

Re: Tour de France

Post by thirdcrank »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-26740994

... Leeds City Council, said: "Our key message for all spectators will be choose where you want to be, get there early and make a day of it celebrating what is sure to be an amazing 'I was there' moment for Leeds ...
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mjr
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Re: Tour de France

Post by mjr »

RT road.cc @roadcc
Planning on takingbike on train to go watch Tour de France? Forget it, says ATOC: http://road.cc/117005
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
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