Tour De France Today - KWVR

With the TDF crossing the KWVR twice today (including Howarth yard Bridge), are they planning anything special ? KWVR have already had a name check on the ITV coverage today as apparently the TV commentator Phil Liggett is a steam fan.

 

They are running an intensive service of trains today which started at 6.40am and finishes after 8.00pm. Don't know if 34092 will be posed in the Golden Arrow regalia.

 

They are just entering the outskirts of Silsden / Keighley now

 

It was a real shame the TV coverage cut away to adverts during the period that they were near the KWVR. The TV commentators did name check them a second time though.

 

Would have been " Côte de ..." , not "Col..." (Côte is hill, Col is pass). French is the language of cycling...

Incidentally, ignoring the French translations, The Tour also has a bit of a tendency to sometimes rename climbs from their local name, generally naming them after a local village rather than the road name. Hence the Côte d’Oughtibridge rather than Jawbone Hill. Before anyone jumps up in the air, it regularly does that in France as well. All part of the psychogeography of the event. Though I doubt anyone in Sheffield is complaining too much now that the mundane Côte de Jenkins Road has become famous across the world...

Tom

 

and it does make one wonder what the French will make of "Cote du Buttertubs" ?

At least this weekend was a good one to visit France - it's usually too full of the French !

 

If you think the Tour de France is a predominantly French affair, you are about 30 years out of date. These days, French riders are in the minority (I haven't counted this year, but probably only about 25 - 30% of the field) and the French haven't won their home race since 1985 - shades of the British at Wimbledon, pre-Murray. Meanwhile, if you go to France, to a very large extent the crowds aren't French either: large numbers of Dutch, British and Germans (especially in the mountains) and increasingly Aussies and Americans.

I am somewhat surprised at the rather churlish tone taken by some on here. I rather suspect that the good publicans, hoteliers and shopkeepers of Yorkshire are over the moon at an influx of visitors estimated at 2.5million for the weekend! Money well spent by the Yorkshire tourist people, especially as a significant part of the fee for hosting the event will in any case have been spent in Yorkshire, and isn't simply profit to the ASO.

Having been a follower of cycling since the late 1970s, and having watched the Tour many times from the roadside since the early 1990s, I can't remember a weekend for impact like the one just gone. Moreover, hundreds of millions of TV viewers around the world will have seen what amounts to ten hours of lovingly filmed tourism brochure showing off the best of the countryside, towns and villages (with a bike race thrown in for free): you don't get that global exposure for your tourism industry sponsoring football or cricket!

Tom

 

Having been interested in the TDF since the days of Tommy Simpson I am aware that the French are no longer predominant in either competing or watching but you obviously failed to note the wink or appreciate how far my tongue was in my cheek. In fact I was around on Sunday but elected to photograph the loco-hauled workings around the Calder Valley on the basis that the success was such that the TDF is likely to return to these shores sooner rather than later but loco-haulage is an unpredictable event in TDMR [ToDay's Modern Railway].

 

Past experience, including the weekend just gone, is that such major events can bring very mixed fortunes for the areas holding them. Many of the "visitors" actually are people who live in the area, and it is all too easy to scare off people who would be otherwise visiting.

I trust the KWVR had a good and busy day while the race was visiting town - on the NYMR, the various sporting events proved to be a major distraction and we had a quiet weekend as a result - similar to the effect of the World Cup on the Sixties weekend this year and Royal Ascot at York had on the same event a few years back (and indeed much of the City of York, which people avoided unless attending the event).

Fortunately, it proved an ideal time for a slightly curtailed service through Grosmont to allow commissioning of the North End Signalling.

Steven

 

Since the KWVR service was the ONLY possible transport medium in the area given the TDF routeing, I suspect that the KWVR would have had "a good and busy day".

 

For a bite-size discussion of the economics of the "grand depart" see http://inrng.com/2014/07/the-field-of-the-cloth-of-gold/ and http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/27321795

The economics are slightly confused - tourism businesses are obvious winners, as are companies providing logistics (somebody has made a mint on barriers, for example). On the other hand, obviously there is a certain level of disruption for some businesses. Coming back to Bean counter's point about it being quiet on the NYMR - possibly at the weekend, but it would be interesting how the next few days stack up. A lot of people will have chosen to have a longer break in Yorkshire, so will be looking for things to do on the other days - it would be unusual in the extreme if several million people turned up for two days and then disappeared straight away. (And yes, some of those people will be Yorkshire residents - but by no means all of them). So the key is what those people do over the next few days. I'd be amazed if there wasn't some kind of lingering uplift. Plus of course the charms of Yorkshire is well and truly publicised globally -apologies to Victor, but not everyone in the world would have heard of the place before a week ago! A damn sight more are aware now.

Tom