By: Ralph

Ralph — Thu, 10 Jul 2014 15:53:11 +0000

I liked your pictures and words on the Tour and can relate very well to your feelings about it. Which, like you, I’ve heard echoed by others. I think you make a very important point about the particular character of the Tour as compared with, say, football: non-partisan, non-tribal, non-aggressive, non-deferential. My own experience of the Tour in York was that people who normally have zero interest in big sporting events felt able to take it to their hearts, make it their own, and enjoy it in an uncomplicated way. Certainly the people I encountered on Sunday morning were relaxed, happy, full of what used to be called good fellowship. I think the way it was organised too, by both the Yorkshire tourist bodies and the Tour itself, was inclusive and generous in spirit, and people responded to that. Very different to the control-freakery of the Olympics, when you couldn’t use the word “olympics” without the Branding Police threatening you with legal action. People also responded to the local character of it all, the fact this was a Yorkshire event, and it’s very hard to make Yorkshire a thing of brands, image and money – it can’t be contained by those things, is too much a matter of people’s hearts, of deep feelings and associations. So I like to think anyway. We did welcome Le Tour, and we can be proud of our welcome. And we enjoyed it. Your words and images capture that superbly.

Comments on: How we welcomed Le Tour

By: Ralph