If you are watching television at 10.30pm on Saturday night, particularly if you are tuned to SBS, there is a very good chance that this is the vista you will see filling your screen. Yes, the Yorkshire Dales National Park will be part of the route of the first stage of the Tour de France, that venerable cycling race and icon of French culture which seems to roll around with remarkable rapidity each year.
The Tour de France is starting in Yorkshire, England, continuing it’s tradition of venturing beyond it’s native shores in search of sponsorship. I’m surprised someone in the United States hasn’t tried to hijack it and have a stage or three in Uncle Sam’s backyard but logistics may well defeat that idea before it ever came to fruition.
I took the photo above as I toured the route of the race last October, oblivious to the fact that the Tour would be following my wheeltracks many months later. It was only as we drove through a little village on-course that I noticed a yellow sign hanging from a public house which was boldly welcoming the race to Yorkshire. Then it clicked. I knew it was starting in Old Blightly but I had no idea where. It was a pleasant surprise to find out!
The Yorkshire Dales, made famous by James Herriot’s memoirs of life in the English Countryside as a practicing veterinarian, are lush and green and hilly and picturesque with miles of stones fences criss-crossing the countryside for as far as the eye can see. It is also mercifully tranquil with little traffic buzzing along the quiet country roads, a lovely change from the hustle which seems to infect most of the rest of England and a relief for Australian tourists who are more comfortable with sparse and lonely backroads of their own nation.
It is an area I would like to explore more generously should I ever grace that appealing island nation’s shores again and it was the most majestic countryside we saw whilst on our trip. Something different and unique to which we have nothing to compare at home.
As for the race itself I have read that Britain’s Mark Cavendish is the favourite to take the first stage on home soil but having toured the ground I think his chances are doubtful. As my next photo shows, the countryside is littered with obstacles that a fellow like Cavendish, notorious for his inability to ride uphill at speed my find difficult overcome. The riders will actually be going down this hill but it is indicative of what they will face as they traverse the fields of Yorkshire. There was an car sitting on it’s roof on the side of the road at the bottom of this hill, surrounded by police tape, the victim of a driver who had gotten ambition and ability mixed up. It certainly made me slow down! So, it should be an interesting ride in an area seemingly made for bike racing and it holds particular interest for me having perused the area fairly recently.
The Tour itself does not hold as much interest for me overall as it has in other years. I daresay the Greenedge team will be striving for newspaper space in the first week but once they are washed away by the heavy-hitters in the second week Australian success will be much harder to come by especially with Cadel Evans not competing this year.
I daresay I will find myself watching it more than I thought and it will be yet another link in the extravaganza of world sport being run concurrently which is threatening to overwhelm the senses of even the most devoted sports fans. With the Football World Cup, Wimbledon, Tour de France and Commonwealth Games all competing for airtime, employers should be warned that productivity may take a dive in the coming weeks. Joe Hockey won’t be pleased!
I will sign off by posting one last look of Yorkshire, in fact the final view we saw of the Dales as we made our way to York City and I hope you will all tune in on Saturday night to catch a glimpse of a very beautiful part of the world and the magnificent sportsman who are bringing it to you.
Have a nice day.
Strange Notations From a Laborious Life 