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Tour de Yorkshire


mick
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Just got back from a few days up near Settle in the Yorkshire Dales and I've really enjoyed seeing all the preparations for next weekend's Tour de Yorkshire cycle race. Settle is the finish of Stage 1 and the people of Settle have really taken the race to heart and put a lot of effort into it. I hope the weather stays fine next Friday to repay all their dedication.

On the Saturday, stage 2 of the race begins in Otley and passes right by our front door in Conisbrough, firstly with the ladies race in the morning followed by the men later that day, as it makes it's way to the finishing line in Doncaster. Hopefully we'll be sitting outside to watch the race pass by.

Yorkshire certainly knows how to put on a great cycling show. Who could ever forget those scenes up Buttertubs Pass in 2014 as part of the 'Grand Depart'? Long may the Tour de Yorkshire continue.

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The London/Surrey cycle race passes close to me and did make the effort to watch it go pass last year, although it was a bit of an anti climax the went past and it was over! Better to watch it on TV. The problem is that everyone tells us what a great boon it is for London but Joe Public in my part of South West London is house bound for the day. The police close the route for 12 hours from 7 till 7, parked cars get towed away buses are forced on massive diversions or dont run where you want them, to go yet the whole thing from leader to tail end Charlie takes no more than 15 minutes to go past. Whilst some people make money out of it my Sunday delivery round is cancelled for the and as where self empliyed we lose a days pay.

Still winge over l do like watching the cycleing, it shows our country is every bit as beutifull as France and as a cycleing friend of mine says that with the ariel shots now it more like a travelouge with bikes than a sport.

Give us a wave Mick as it passes.

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jimbob said:

The London/Surrey cycle race passes close to me and did make the effort to watch it go pass last year, although it was a bit of an anti climax the went past and it was over!

I love going out on the road side to watch a bike race. I've no idea why I enjoy it so much. I wouldn't say its an anticlimax, I think that's over stating it. I think it's really, really dull. You stand there for half an hour. 100 blokes on bikes flash by, you go home. In that time you've no idea what's happening in the race and struggle to identify a single rider.

I love it. I stood on the roadside for the first tow days of the Tour De France in Yorkshire and then got on a train to stand on the Mall for 3 hours to see the third stage flash by in a blur.

Marvellous.

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It's nice that they still use it's real name.

These days most everything in sport is named after some kind of product. When I was a kid Colorado had a statewide race known as The Red Zinger due to the sponsor being Celestial seasonings tea. The irony there is that Moe Segal the company owner pretty much funded his tea company via the illegal sale of other, shall we say, herbal products.

About a decade later Coors beer company (Best described as watery PI**) took over so they renamed it to the coors classic.

It has also led to some even more hilarious moments. Here in Denver our stadium name rights keep passing from corporation to corporation.

You have to understand that our stadium was originally Mile High Stadium. WE are a mile above sea level and thus are known as the mile high city. So depending on who bought the rights it would be blah blah stadium at Mile High.

Most recently a cannabis company has put in a bid on it, since our state has legalized cannabis. So, if the cannabis company gets to name it, it will become Cannabis Company at Mile High.

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2016/04/01/marijuana-dispensary-seeks-naming-rights-for-mile-high-stadium/

I am waiting for other stadiums to follow suit with various products that will lead to even more hilarity in sport. Perhaps Tampax stadium could be one.

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Funny moment whatching the Tour de France, leading group go over a level crossing as the pelaton approach the lights start flashing and the barriers go down half the group leap of there bikes run in the bushes have a pee by which time the train has gone past (not 20 minutes like UK) all leap back on bikes and catch up with leaders.

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A lot of years ago, the Milk Race passed close by my house. I walked up the road to watch them. Down a hill on my right they came, round the roundabout in front of me, and away off to my left. It was over so fast that I can only remember the hiss of tyres on road. Such an anticlimax. I suppose the best place to watch would be on a long uphill struggle, but I'll bet they are still moving much faster than it appears on TV.

It's quite amazing how fast the top runners can move towards the end of a half or full Marathon too. There's not an ounce of meat on those little Kenyans so how they manage it is beyond me.

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Just got back from the Dales, having caught a brief glimpse of the Tour de Yorkshire as it passed through Hellifield. I say a brief glimpse because, as others have already commented, that's all you get as the Peleton speeds past. It was my first experience of a cycle road race and the first thing that struck me was the sound of a couple of hundred rubber tyres on the tarmac.

We'd spent the previous 3-4 hours watching the race on tv from it's departure in Beverley. It was interesting to see the bikes racing along familiar roads and through scenery that we know well. The weather wasn't great, in fact it was bitterly cold by the time the bikes got to us, and the light was so poor that the few photos I managed to take with my mobile phone are really not worth posting.

We recorded the entire Stage 1 to watch back once we'd arrived home, especially as we'd missed the section beginning at Gargrave whilst we were standing out by the roadside waiting for the bikes to pass by. Unfortunately the ITV4 coverage went to a commercial break at exactly that moment and Gargrave was missed completely but luckily the Eurosport coverage which we had also recorded decided that Gargrave was worth including so using a combination of channels we got all that we'd hoped for. We even saw a very brief glimpse of ourselves as the riders departed Hellifield and headed towards the finish in Settle - not a pretty sight I might add.

The forecast tomorrow is for a better day, and hopefully one that's slightly warmer. As Stage 2 of the race passes immediately in front of our home, and also features the Ladies race earlier in the day, we get to see it close up twice and all at a distance no more than just a few metres from the front door. Looking forward to it, even if it is over in the blink of an eye.

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They brought the tour of Britain about ten miles from me a couple of years ago, I think they were trying to torture the riders it's one of the roughest roads in the area. Luckily they closed the road after I went to work and it was reopened long before I came back. With our rivers getting in the way there often is no alternative road.

The only other cycle racing round here they are set off at intervals and don't close the roads. They pass only a couple of miles away, and seem to get very upset when I trundle along in the landrover and slow them down.....to the speed limit. A down slope section through a village with no pavements.

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Just enjoyed the final stage of the TDY from Middlesbrough to Scarborough. What epic scenes on the climb up Sutton Bank. Pity that the TV coverage was unavailable the previous day, more especially for the Women's race as the TDY organisation put a lot of effort into that and it was a great opportunity to showcase the event to a global audience. Hard to believe that there was no contingency plan in place for the live TV should such an event happen but perhaps there may well be in future.

We did get to see both the mens and womens races yesterday as they raced past our house and yes, it was worth the effort to put up a row of bunting and a couple of 'Yorkshire Rose' flags to play our little part.

One thing with the TDY is that it's never too far from where you are so here's to another successful event again next year.

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  • 4 years later...
On 4/22/2016 at 7:06 PM, mick said:

Yorkshire certainly knows how to put on a great cycling show. Who could ever forget those scenes up Buttertubs Pass in 2014 as part of the 'Grand Depart'? Long may the Tour de Yorkshire continue.

I was on top of Holme Moss that day in 2014, never experienced anything like it.

On 4/23/2016 at 8:49 AM, chris said:

I love going out on the road side to watch a bike race. I've no idea why I enjoy it so much. I wouldn't say its an anticlimax, I think that's over stating it. I think it's really, really dull. You stand there for half an hour. 100 blokes on bikes flash by, you go home. In that time you've no idea what's happening in the race and struggle to identify a single rider.

I love it. I stood on the roadside for the first tow days of the Tour De France in Yorkshire and then got on a train to stand on the Mall for 3 hours to see the third stage flash by in a blur.

Marvellous.

I've been chasing them around most of my adult life. lol I swapped chasing trains to chasing bike races. Now I'm a bit like a labrador - I chase everything.

On 4/23/2016 at 5:00 PM, traingeekboy said:

It's nice that they still use it's real name.

These days most everything in sport is named after some kind of product. When I was a kid Colorado had a statewide race known as The Red Zinger due to the sponsor being Celestial seasonings tea. The irony there is that Moe Segal the company owner pretty much funded his tea company via the illegal sale of other, shall we say, herbal products.

The biggest cycle race from the USA is the Amgen Tour of California. I don't think I'm wrong in saying that Amgen is the licence owner for E.P.O. And the owner of Amgen was the owner of the race team that was US Postal Service and then Discovery Channel. i.e. Lance Armstrong's team. Perhaps I'm seeing something there that is more than it is.

On 4/22/2016 at 8:18 PM, jimbob said:

 

The London/Surrey cycle race passes close to me and did make the effort to watch it go pass last year, although it was a bit of an anti climax the went past and it was over! Better to watch it on TV. The problem is that everyone tells us what a great boon it is for London but Joe Public in my part of South West London is house bound for the day. The police close the route for 12 hours from 7 till 7, parked cars get towed away buses are forced on massive diversions or dont run where you want them, to go yet the whole thing from leader to tail end Charlie takes no more than 15 minutes to go past. Whilst some people make money out of it my Sunday delivery round is cancelled for the and as where self empliyed we lose a days pay.

The Ride London Surrey Classic is a bit different to most professional cycle races. Most of them going around the country have a rolling road closure about 20 minutes ahead of the race so traffic isn't affected for too long.

Ride London is different in that it has the professional races and then the open entry events where anyone (who has applied and got a place via a lottery) can have a go on the route. This is why it is closed all day.

On 4/30/2016 at 5:27 AM, TheQ said:

The only other cycle racing round here they are set off at intervals and don't close the roads. They pass only a couple of miles away, and seem to get very upset when I trundle along in the landrover and slow them down.....to the speed limit. A down slope section through a village with no pavements.

Speed limits only apply to motor vehicles except in Royal parks. The law never applied them to bicycles, no idea why, perhaps because bikes aren't legislated to have speedometers or maybe they never envisaged bikes being able to go over 30mph when speed limits were introduced.

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  • 1 month later...
On 20/09/2020 at 22:26, Clay Mills Junction said:

 

Speed limits only apply to motor vehicles except in Royal parks. The law never applied them to bicycles, no idea why, perhaps because bikes aren't legislated to have speedometers or maybe they never envisaged bikes being able to go over 30mph when speed limits were introduced.

The same applies to sailing on the Norfolk Broads, motorboats have to stick to the 4 /5 /6 mph limits but sailing boats do not.. That makes it difficult driving a rescue boat as you can't break the limit until they need rescuing.. But they are busy sailing away from you and you can't keep up!

 

They may not have to obey the limit on Bicycles but I do in the land rover...

You can of course, on a bicycle be prosecuted for riding Furiously... 

Any local council can pass a bylaw with speed limits for bicycles, which I've seen done on a road, that is access only for those that live on it, but is mostly used by wandering tourists who think it's a big foot path.. (10mph for cars or bikes). The Dirty looks I get driving my land rover down it...

 

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