After months of preparation the cyclists in the Tour de France Grand Depart rushed through Aysgarth on July 5 – and left us all wondering where all the crowds were. Many communities like those in Bainbridge, Hawes, Muker, and Leyburn had worked hard to welcome this “once in a lifetime event” – as I saw when I went on a photographic tour a few days before the Grand Depart.
Click on the first three photos to see the albums on Flickr:
Le Tour cyclists passing through Aysgarth:
Aysgarth on the day of Le Tour:
Carperby’s market cross was dressed for the occasion even though the village wasn’t on the Le Tour route.
Wednesday, July 2
Like many others I thought it would be fun to go and see how our villages were celebrating this big event – and also make sure I did my shopping before all those expected hordes of visitors descended upon us. Many residents had worked hard to decorate their villages and hamlets before this “once in a lifetime” event.
In Leyburn I found that many other local residents had also decided to do their shopping early with some items either being out of stock or very low. It was also obvious that the cafes and pubs were doing a roaring trade thanks to all the cyclists needing refreshment after their long haul over the Buttertubs and along Moor Road.
The barriers were going up as I approached the Tour route through Wensleydale.
Thursday, July 3
Like many others I was busy baking – both for the flower festival at Aysgarth church (June 4-6) and for the refreshment stalls being organised by Aysgarth Institute. I did make a tour of Aysgarth to take some photographs – for as a friend pointed out to me in Hawes, I couldn’t leave my own village out.
The chocolate fudge cake I made was, in parts, too (gorgeously) fudgy to cut up and take to either the church or the institute. We just had to eat much of it ourselves!
Friday, July 4
That morning I did a two-hour shift at Aysgarth church – welcoming anyone who came to see the floral displays that had been created to celebrate Le Tour to Wensleydale.
On leaving the church I found the roads teeming with cyclists – they came from every direction on every road. And back at Aysgarth I found that a portaloo had been placed right in the centre of the village, as planned by one of the parish councillors and originally with the approval of Aysgarth and District parish council. But not in accordance with the wishes of the villagers who very quickly took action to move it.
In the end it found a home beside another portaloo in the car park at the George and Dragon. Below: Unwanted of Aysgarth.
At 4pm many villagers converged on Aysgarth institute carrying bags of homemade cakes and cookies to join in a very happy communal event, expertly overseen by Karen. Within an hour or so 250 packed lunches had been prepared, with the sandwiches safely stored in fridges ready to be placed in the bags tomorrow, alongside bottled water, apples, and biscuits.
The big question was: just how many people would converge on the village before the roads closed at 7am the following morning?
Saturday, July 5
My first job was to check the secondary Community First Responder kit that had been delivered to me. Then I packed myself some food that I could eat as I would be based at the institute as a community first responder for most of the day.
When I got into the centre of the village at 10am I found that all of those crowds of people we had been told to expect just hadn’t materialised – kept out by those barriers. It certainly was easy to watch the Tour de France cyclists but sadly a lot of food did not get sold.
I was very grateful that there no medical emergencies and I could enjoy the spectacle. The ‘caravan’, however, was a big disappointment. The drivers may have honked their horns or blasted us with other unmelodious sounds, but they drove through our village as fast as they could and shared little with us. Just one police motorcyclist stopped to share a high five with a small girl. The helicopters overhead as Le Tour cyclists passed through gave a better show than the caravan.
As a family we watched some of Le Tour on television that afternoon – and had a good laugh at the bad pronunciation of the names of Yorkshire towns and villages by the commentators who even confused the Yorkshire Dales with the North Yorkshire Moors. That, and the limited knowledge of Yorkshire revealed by the stewards brought in from southern England, said a lot about the North South divide in this country. Those poor stewards certainly did not expect it to be that much colder up in the hills of the North.
Sunday, July 6
David and I had a very enjoyable, restful day at the classic car rally at Corbridge, while Eddie battled through the crowds in York to get another view of Le Tour. Eddie commented later that it had been more enjoyable watching Le Tour in Aysgarth.
Monday, July 7:
My niece, Helen, and her son Jack, watched Le Tour as it left Cambridge – as a way of celebrating the memory of “Granddad Bob” , my brother who died at this time last year.