14 Hours!

Gosh it’s getting exciting! I imagine Stuart Verity will have a sleepless night tonight, along with a few elite cyclists! We began the day in Keighley, using our ASDA Tourmaker vouchers to buy food for our volunteering stint on Sunday. I came across this wonderful sugar creation in a shop window and stopped for a while to talk to the enthusiastic owner. This afternoon we headed out over the hill to Haworth. It’s a village used to tourists but today it was brimming with ‘cycling’ tourists, a quite different breed. There were discussions ongoing about the ride up the cobbles and where spectators would stand, the route after the village and the best places for a view (whoever has the table in the conservatory in Embers Restaurant will have a fantastic view!) I even encountered buff envy from one tourist!

Haworth, like so many of the villages/towns on the route, has gone Le Tour bonkers, turned yellow and recycled bikes galore! The Brontes would be turning in their graves…on the other hand they were emancipated women so would probably have dug out their bikes too! (Did they have bikes then?!)
My blip sort of encapsulates several things. You have a view of the cobbles which the 200+ riders will be coming up, plus a rather grand piece of artwork showcasing the attractions of Haworth (thinks I can see the Railway Children in there somewhere), plus the newest attraction for the village which apparently is going to be unveiled in the Park tomorrow (but you get to see it here first!) as part of the Arts Festival which has been running aside the Le Tour build up. It is made of two pence pieces so now you get to guess how many? See below for the answer and then do the maths to work out what it is worth!

Tony and I have decided that we will avoid the road closures by cycling over the moor to Ilkley tomorrow, park up the bikes in the Spectator Hub and then get our elbows out (and my camera) for a space on the roadside. Woohoo, exciting or what?!

More Keighley, Haworth, Otley Le Tour blips here! Maybe if you are blipping the Tour this weekend you could tag your blips with LGD2014

Answer: 26 840