Friday, September 2, 2005

"Tour de France with pork pies instead of baguettes."
Yorkshire Post

Thursday, September 1, 2005

Photos of the race as it passed through Hebden Bridge at the bottom of the Keighley Road

Friday, August 26, 2005

The race should pass Oxenhope, Keighley Road, Pecket Well and Hebden Bridge shortly after midday on Thursday, 1st September

Many of the world's top professional cyclists will be passing though our area on Thursday 1st September, when The Tour of Britain, our answer to The Tour de France, passes through Hebden Bridge.

The Tour of Britain is a six-stage blue riband cycle race. The race starts in Glasgow on 30th August and finishes in London Westminster on 4th September and the winner will be the rider who has completed all six stages in the least amount of time. In addition, riders will also be competing to win the individual stages, the overall points competition, and the titles of the 'best climber' and the 'best sprinter'.

The Yorkshire leg is the third stage of the race and starts at Leeds Millennium Square at 10.30 a.m., finishing in Sheffield city centre approximately four-and-a-half hours later. The riders will get up to speeds of around 60 mph on the descents of some of the steepest climbs such as the Keighley Road from Oxenhope and up to 40 mph on some of the sprints.

Race stats

• There are 96 world class professional cyclists taking part in this year's Tour of Britain split into 16 teams.
• Each rider will burn off approximately 6,000 to 7,000 calories cycling the Yorkshire stage of the Tour of Britain - the equivalent to around 30 Mars bars or 50 baked potatoes.
• The riders will take approximately 4 - 4.5 hours to cover 110 miles.
• The riders will get up to speeds of around 60 mph on the descents of some of the steepest climbs such as Snake Pass and up to 40 mph on some of the sprints.
• The entire Tour of Britain entourage including riders and their teams of mechanics, masseurs, marshals and race organisers numbers 450 people.
• There will be 16 team cars traveling with the riders through the Tour of Britain race, with mechanics on hand to fix any punctures or problems with the team riders' bikes.
• There will be 100 tour vehicles in total traveling the route with the riders.
• Over 100 volunteers will line the Yorkshire route, equating to 800 hours (33 days) of volunteer time in total.
• Each bike costs between £5,000 and £6,000, meaning the total value of the bikes in the Tour totals over £1million.

Tour of Britain website

We try to make sure that the Hebden Bridge Web news is correct, but if you are aware of any errors or omissions, please email us