[Closed] TdF Good, Bad and the Ugly

£15 to park In a grassy fielding Hawes yesterday!!! noticed they had priced a lot of people away from the half full campsites!

Loved the relatively cheap but fully equipped campsite at the Nidderdale bike fest(£30 two nights),hated the french vans selling memerobelia with annoying tannoys,

On the whole though an excellent weekend, and great see so many bikes around and people enjoying themselves.

I reckon tight Northerners charging to park /camp in a field soured it for a lot of folk . Also pubs putting prices up for the day as well . I walked to end of my road and watched it then went back home to Watch Lewis smash Silverstone

Paying Nothing and getting 5 hours of TDF fun - best biking day ever!

Free to park at Gargrave.
Little pootle up to Côte de Cray.
£3.50 a pint at the White Lion Inn.
Best bike ride day ever.
Happy.

Good - amount of people arriving on bikes (proper cyclists) not fat in his 40's john in his jeans.

I arrived on my bike in Jeans, and I'm not slim by any means.

You should have said this was an issue for you, I would have come in the car 🙄

Watch Lewis smash Silverstone

Wow, not watched it yet, but thanks for the spoiler in a TDF thread.

Yesterday, parked 10 mins outside Skipton for free. Had a normal priced breakfast then saw the tour, all good.

Today, hauled my FS up on the road then some excellent off-road over Blacktone Edge, spent no money, came home on a sweet new descent. All good again.

TAFKASTR, sorry fella, its well worth watching 😕

parked outside skipton yesterday for free, watched for free and enjoyed the sun, went to veggie café paid same as usual

today watched on TV

wonderful event and well supported

Paying Nothing and getting 5 hours of TDF fun - best biking day ever!

Don't suppose you saw your mate, and got some more info on Planet-X's imminent demise?

No worries trevron - called you a bellend too, but it's been removed and I've been duly bollocked by the gestapo - shoulda put a smiley, but apologies anyway. I've avoided it on FB, so was a bit miffed, but all good 🙂

amount of people arriving on bikes (proper cyclists) not fat in his 40's john in his jeans.

Absolutely. We don't want to encourage 'normal' people to hop on bikes and think that they're a viable, sensible means of transport, cycling needs to be the preserve of proper cyclists with special clothes and equipment.

Highlights, that it came within about 25miles of where I grew up. Seeing Hawes open and embracing the tour at 6am, tour de france signs in Kirkby Stephen and just the shere number of people on bikes. The highlight though had to be Jens Voigt in the cauldron of noise between the spoil heaps on Buttertubs.

Best bit was the all the crowds cheering my 6yo lad in his home-made 'maillot jaune' as he rode up to the top of Cote de Greetland from the Huddersfield side. 😀

called you a bellend too, but it's been removed

So they removed that, but not the spoiler?

Odd.

£3.50 a pint at the White Lion Inn.

Blimey, I thought it was cheap up north, I only pay £2.70 locally

RD After my little pootle of 18 miles on a mountain bike I would have happily paid £50 a pint.

I reckon tight Northerners charging to park /camp in a field

What, and you reckon it'd have been better down south!?

Good = kids screaming their lungs out with excitement
Bad= MAMILs pretending to be chris froome riding the wrong way down roads and wondering why fathers with kids were going to put their lights out, really 30 mph whilst folks are walking with no way of stopping

Good - the whole thing, brilliantly done.
Bad - there's some rite knob ends that ride bikes out there int there!?!
Ugly - the rider that seems to have gone down the hardest, well his knee and Lycra anyway.

Funniest - the guy who fell off riding up Holme Moss in front of me while doing about 3mph and then lying on his back, bike in the air & still clipped in. Hotly followed by the guy who did the very same under the KOM banner and the 2 guys in manikins tackling the security after they tried to stop them, nuts ooot

Good.
the fantastic maelsrom of people on the col de Cringles today
Good the fantastic work of the folks trying to keep us and the riders safe

the great weather
the awesome spectacle of the tour in yorkshire

has two days of great cycling on a never to be repeated event
this morning i rode the wrong way on the steeton bypass with my dog in the middle of two lanes and no cars it was bliss.
been a fantastic weekend of sport

good= fantastic carnival atmosphere in leeds, which lasted allday. it was awesome.

bad= me, getting sunburnt whilst sat outside the magic spanner bar, supping one of the best ales i have ever had, at a nice price too.

ugly= idiot blokes in replica kit, trying to get to the front on the barriers, with their bikes(100yds off the start line). a copper told them he would confiscate their bike if they did not move to the back and use some common sense.

Good - the atmosphere at the top of Blubberhouses moor, especially the guy on the top of the crags playing the bagpipes!

Bad - was there anything bad? I got slightly sunburned? I found a fantastic pub selling excellent beer and food for a reasonable price just a few miles off the course which is going to make all other pubs in Cambridge seem a bit rubbish?

The midges were a bit annoying early on in the morning.

Ugly - probably me.

Good being handed a bottle by Nibali on the way up Oxenhope, Bad the bell ends getting in the way of the riders (some great footage of a rider smashing one to the floor, did well to stay on his bike)
Ugly, Cav going down in Harrogate.

Got to see it in Otley, Harrogate and Oxenhope, and still watch the finish on the big screen in Keighley and all in a t-shirt and shorts and hot sun, but the coverage on BBC has done my head in, maybe they need to get their heads out of their collective peadophile arses and realise that it was the biggest event happening in the UK and there were millions of people watching not "tens of thousands" - dicks!

Scariest was the way some drivers performed with so many bikes around. A few butters waving me past at blind bends and double white lines- good intentions but a bit dumb. Best bit was seeing so many people on bikes.

The Cote du Blubberhouses Piper - chapeau!!!

Parked at Ainley Top (Huddersfield) and spent the day near the top of the Cote de Greetland with my wife and boys, and my brother and his family.
Good: Everything
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Bad: the racket made by my nephew after he trapped his finger whilst smacking the hell out of an old wheel rim

Ugly: Nothing really. Everyone enjoyed it. Always good to see the police waving and smiling, whether the guy trying to keep the crowd from spilling onto the road, the motorbike outriders or the ones in the undercover grey bmws.

Good - Everything, especially seeing people watch a bike race who you would have never thought would, and walking miles to get there.

Bad - Nothing

Ugly - Nothing apart from maybe wannabe pros taking a dislike to fat in his 40's john in his jeans, who was just out to enjoy himself like everyone else.

Good - so many people on bike or on foot, football games on dual carriageways after the race had come through, fantastic weather, atmosphere, racing. Everything.

Bad - struggling to find food in Haworth yesterday evening (we were about 10 minutes too late it seems as everywhere stopped serving at 8), midges, bar on the campsite running out of beer with about 20km to go yesterday. But nothing major.

Good (watched them both on TV) - Seeing how many people were out there
Bad The way the climbs were getting closed down a bit too much
Ugly they idiot taking a photo on the hard shoulder when he was hit by one of Kittels men (Big shoulder charge) that could have taken down most of the top 10 riders when he was deflected into the bunch.

Good - us modest Yorkshire folk have been banging on for years how great Yorkshire is, now the whole world knows!

Bad - the bloke directing his wobbly kid into the middle of the road and oncoming cars in Ilkley so he could overtake the queue of cyclists on the inside of the road at the lights

Ugly - the amount of people who travelled for miles, camped and waited for hours to experience the TDF roll by, only to watch it on a screen a few inches wide and holding their hands and arms in the way of the riders in the process! I guess they don't want to arouse suspicion with the party by not looking at the Telescreen.

Good - Two days of excellent cycling and a fantastic advertisement for Yorkshire.
Great weather (for a change).
Magic Spanner Bar (ohhhh the hoppy goodness of their pale ale).

Bad - That the race proper didn't actually start in Leeds.
The ITV coverage (more adverts than actual racing).

Ugly - Idiots running into the roads / blocking riders.
Sheffield city center. 😆

I reckon tight Northerners charging to park /camp in a field soured it for a lot of folk

We learnt to be entrepreneurs from Thatcher.

Ugly - the chav family that, having allowed their children to trample my friends kit that was on the ground next to her rucksack then went into aggressive full-on screaming mode when that behaviour was challenged.
Why should other people have to accept having their stuff walked on/kicked etc? We expect people to socialise their dogs before bringing them out in public, is it too much to demand that of their children?

muddydwarf - you'll see that behaviour anywhere people gather in large numbers. Just be grateful you don't have to live with them

Was anyone else impressed by the TV helicopters?
It was like Apocalypse Now as they approached Cote de Greetland. I wish they'd have been blasting out some Wagner!

A truly wonderful advert for us northern monkeys.

A helicopter memory. Near the top of oxenhope moor there isn't much cover and as a woman wandered away from the road across it for an all fresco comfort break she got chants of "we know what you're doing".

Then the helicopter arrived and hovered over her...

Good: the brilliant atmosphere and great scenery, thanks Yorkshire! Riding along closed roads lined with people is pretty cool too. Great to see so many bikes out as well.

Bad: Not getting home until 11pm last night and having to work this morning.

Ugly: The parts of my body covered in midge bites. Didn't know that the campsite we booked was in a place called 'Midgehole', it did a fine job of living up to its name!

The good: Just bloody everything! One of the best weekends ever!! The absolutely fantastic atmosphere. The joyous way Yorkshire whole-heartedly embraced the whole thing.

Bad: Nothing. Stop moaning FFS you whiney middle class cockbags 🙄

Gratuitous didn't we have a lovely weekend pictures.

Yorkshire attitude:

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Waiting for the peleton:

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Binnerette number one, close to the action as Kittel came up Jawbone Hill, screaming ALLEZ ALLEZ!!!!!

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Overall....

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😀

Good: The atmosphere, the closed roads, the event. Seeing lots of kids on bikes.

Bad: jobsworth policeman shutting the road 2 hours before the caravan (dunno why)

Ugly: my hangover.

Good: as mentioned riding the closed roads up to Holme Moss, being cheered by huge crowds en route. The scenery and weather, and above all the amazing atmosphere. Unreal.

Bad: a fat route steward on our return sitting on a wall, turning to her colleague having given me the once over grovelling up a hill in Huddrrsfield and saying "you get some right odd shapes cycling these days" nearly got off and hailed a taxi there and then. Oh and the hills barely a bit of flat between our start point on Denholme and Holme Moss. Then had to go back up!

Ugly: see the steward's comment above.

I particularly liked the police car playing the 'allo 'allo theme tune on repeat from their PA system!

Good - pretty much everything, the atmosphere, friendliness and banter at the top of Kidstones, the massive chant of 'chips, chips, chips' as the McCain van came past, the little kid with his dad roared all the way to the top by the crowd, seeing Jens blasting through in the breakaway. Even the Dales weather put on a show, with the breeze and clouds making the landscape look utterly beautiful.

Bad - nothing! Even queuing off the climb on my bike afterwards was a laugh, and when some rambler complained about the lack of bells on bikes, a copper within earshot put HIM in his place, informing him it wasn't a legal requirement! 🙂

Ugly - I presume completely skipping Keighley town centre on the ITV coverage took care of that one.

Good: my dad getting a smile from Jens when he shouted "shut up legs" as he absolutely fly by. Stupid I know but I had no idea just how fast they go!!!

Bad the traffic and the car breaking down and waiting 5 hours for the breakdown man

Ugly: my dad in his bright yellow tee shirt ( shame)

It was like Apocalypse Now as they approached Cote de Greetland