Loads happening in churches all over the county. Here’s Penistone St Johns…

Check out the page below for more action

https://bellsandbikes.com/tdy/

Join me 7pm, Friday 17 March at Sheffield Adventure Film Festival.

Speaking in The Workstation at The Showroom Cinema, opposite Sheffield train station.

https://wordpress.com/page/bellsandbikes.com/1225

Community events ahead of and during the Tour de Yorkshire are awesome. If you want some ideas here are a few images of things from the last three years – roadside bands, roadside church bells, roadside knitted artwork, dry stone wall bikes, world record bunting and spotty cafes to name but a few… What will you do for 2017?

Continue reading “Tour de Yorkshire – Ideas”

Hot off the press… The list of churches with bells on the race route of the 2017 Tour de Yorkshire. Click HERE to explore the map and see how you can get involved.

Check out www.bellsandbikes.com/tdy too for a link to sign up free for the Tour Roadshows being run across the county by Welcome to Yorkshire. Also for my blog and photos from the 2016 race.

Bells & Bikes is available in more shops than ever. Find your nearest outlet via my new google map or buy online at Amazon or Vertebrate Publishing. Or why get in touch with me direct. Have a very merry Christmas and a happy cycling and bellringing new year.

Over 500 churches are having open days between Thursday 8th and Sunday 11th September 2016.

https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/

I’ll be helping at Hathersage on Thursday (7-9pm) and Bakewell (Saturday 1-3pm). See you there 😉

After 4 years of keenly competing in the #tdf133 poetry competition I’m delighted to be providing a prize for the 2016 contest. #tdf133 involves writing a poem in 133 characters or less, in a tweet, to summarise each stage of the Tour de France.

You can see the whole range of entries by searching #tdf133 on Twitter.

The whole event (the poetry, not the Tour) is run by Rachel @TourDeCouch in Australia. It is hotly contested by Tour de France fans across the world, united by Twitter.

Continue reading “Judging Poetry #tdf133”

Massive thanks to kind folk on Twitter who have sent in photos of churches on the 2016 Tour de France race route. Here goes!

Portbail, Normandy – thanks to Bruno Lallemand @Lallemand_Bruno

Villedieu-les-Poeles, Normandy. Thanks to English Tifosi @41TourStages

Guchen, Pyrenees. Thanks to Mark Ansell @Mark Ansell

Estensan, Pyrenees. Thanks to Mark Ansell @MarkAnsell

Azet, Pyrenees. Thanks to Mark Ansell @MarkAnsell

Valloire, Alps. Thanks to TdF Beefeaters @tdfbeefeaters

Albertville, Alps. Thanks to English Tifosi @41TourStages

Megeve, Alps. Thanks to English Tifosi @41TourStages

Stage 19 of the 2016 Tour de France (Albertville to Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc) takes in a host of beautiful Alpine passes. We rode several of them back in 1994. It took a few days! With rest days too!

Above, we see me approach the summit of the Col de la Forclaz after a hot climb from Martigny. It turned out Peter’s back wheel had buckled on the climb, making it an even more incredible ascent (with panniers) than for race riders on carbon frames with team cars. In the next photo we see Peter’s panniers being double stacked onto my bike for the descent to a bike repair shop in Chamonix.

After Chamonix we rode through Megeve (part of the 2016 Tour). Soon after Megeve I saw a left turn to the Col des Saisies. We didn’t know about col bagging (and the Ordre Des Cols Durs) at that point but we recognised the name from Le Tour, so we turned off to climb it. Two days later a veteran col bagger at Alpe d’Huez told us about the OCD and we were hooked.

Finally, for this post we see the Alpine pass sign which led us to the Forclaz. We hadn’t originally planned to ride the Forclaz but the other passes were shut with snow so we took the open one! We also met the post lady on her bike near Albertville.

#tdf #tdf2016 #letour #france #letourdefrance #col #mountain #cycloclimbing #ocd #cols

Chesterfield is not alone! Check this fascinating article by Green Adventures. Wonderful places for cycle tours too.

http://www.greenadventurestravel.com/europe/crooked-spires.html