How the Tour de France’s visit to Yorkshire left us standing

Four months after the Tour de France appeared like a mirage in such places as Blubberhouses, Otley and Kettlewell, and though the 2015 Grand Départ will pass to Utrecht, folk in North Yorkshire have not let go of the sun-blessed memory. Bikes, painted yellow, are still planted in laybys, on village greens or bolted on to houses; the bunting is still out.

The old inn at the bottom of Knaresborough’s high street still wears the white-with-red polka dots of the tour’s King of the Mountains jersey, although one of the polka dots has finally gone dog-eared. The B&B had only 10 seconds of TV fame as the peloton swished through, but it did look magnificent: proud and droll.

That was everybody’s experience of Yorkshire’s Grand Départ – we stood for hours, 30 deep near the finish in Harrogate, and finally the riders went past in under a minute. Sideways on, we couldn’t make out who was who, interpret the race or understand they were bunching for a sprint, which Mark Cavendish would overdo and crash, just outside Bettys.

Yet it was thrilling, seeing it, the actual Tour de France, really there in Yorkshire, and everybody went home dazzled, feeling it had been worth it. Local authorities that forked out £11m to pay ASO, the Tour company, and stage its event at a time of savage cuts to core services, apparently feel it was worth it too, as £150m is said to have been spent by the crowds on food and drink, accommodation and transport. Visit Yorkshire, the tourist board which secured another £10m from this austerity government, believes the two-day global exposure has hugely advanced its strategy of imprinting the county on visitors’ radars and overseas tourists’ London-to-Edinburgh itineraries.

But on the claim that now compulsorily attaches to the expensive hosting of sporting mega-events – that they will increase participation – the results are, as always, unconvincing. Official figures are not yet out, but the evidence so far is that any boost has mostly been in lycra-clad sports cycling. Despite our unbeatable fervour for events, and cheering on professional sportsmen, Britain has an awful rate of cycling participation. A 2013 European Commission report found that in Holland 27% of journeys are made by bike and 43% of people cycle every day; in the UK – 25th out of 29 countries – the figures are 2% and 4%.

The cycling campaign CTC and the all-party parliamentary cycling group, argue this is due to lack of investment in cycle lanes and infrastructure – a lamentable contrast to the multimillions found for stadiums and prestige events. In Harrogate itself, only last week, a man in his 50s, cycling at 7.15am to his work for the NHS, suffered devastating injuries including to his head, in a collision with a car. The government and other authorities are irresponsible in urging people to cycle more if they’re not prepared to do what is necessary to make it safer.

One perfect day

Half-terms are so much easier now my daughters are 12 and 15. When they were little it was all desperate juggling and pleas for help, but this week they’ll make arrangements on their phones with people whose phone numbers they don’t even have, occasionally popping home to watch Hollyoaks. The eldest might even give her GCSE work a glance.

Back then, there were the 6am starts, the mountainous task of getting them both dressed, the need to feed them three whole times each day, the terrible pressure to find something to do. Through all the nerve-shredding, though, I did always feel that time was precious.

I remember one perfect day we made it to the park, the girls didn’t fall off anything, then we popped into a shop on the way back. When I’d got what I needed, I took their little hands and said: “Come on, lovelies.” “Aahh,” the woman in the shop said, “that’s really nice, that is.”

And I felt a glow, at her approval of my daddy-hood.

It was, I distinctly recall, a branch of Bargain Booze.

@david_conn