T’Tour or the Tour de Yorkshire was born after the success of having the Grand Depart of the Tour de France in 2014. It started something wheely big in Yorkshire. The opening stages had been in the UK before in 1998 but the mania did not take hold. This time it has been warmly adopted and embraced in the ridings. Each year since Yorkshire has run their own Tour. The riders, the fans and the locals have gone as crazy for the cycle racing as the French.
In 2016, Welcome to Yorkshire continued to work towards it’s aim of making Yorkshire the cycling heartland of Europe. It upped the ante in the women’s race by offering the largest prize fund ever. Three days of racing organised by A.S.O. are the Tour de Yorkshire. It delivers tough hills to climb, a lot of twists and turns, all interspersed with sprints before the long run to the finish.
The only thing they can not organise is the weather. Having climbed up Greenhow Hill on Day One, to capture the exertion in the faces and bodies of the riders, fans and photographers are all huddled like penguins behind the team feed station vans. The engines are running and it is sheltered. We are hopping from one foot to the other to stay warm. It’s the only shelter from the snow flurries! We all being moving at the moment that the helicopters crest the ridge to let us know that the teams are arriving.
The Tour de Yorkshire riders had for the main part carried on. Working together to keep the speed, the motivation and the pace that’s required to stay warm. It’s a team game and the riders were swathed in wet gear from head to toe. It was 186 km from the start at Beverley. Sir Bradley Wiggins had to pull out at 35km. Other riders continued to fight through the cold and wet conditions to take them to the final sprint at Giggleswick. Then it was just one more push for the sprint to the line at Settle.
Painting:
“Banking’ is a 100 x 50 cm primed canvas on stretchers. Painted by brush with Winsor & Newton water-soluble oils, thinner and linseed oil before being framed in white-limed wood.
You’ll spot a fan with their camera down against the boards to get a shot of the riders feet and wheels.
