THE official Tour de France Grand Départ trophy was out and about in the Yorkshire Dales National Park last week ahead of the event coming to the county in July.
As well as being put on display to visitors in the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes and in the National Park Centre in Grassington, the trophy took a trip to the iconic Three Peaks and to the Peregrine falcon viewpoint.
Authority Chairman Peter Charlesworth said: “Hosting the trophy in the National Park, taking it round to some of the most iconic sites and giving people the opportunity to see it, really has brought it home that this fantastic event is nearly here.
“The staging of the Grand Départ – which includes 55 miles of the route through the National Park – is a unique chance for everyone who lives and works in this special place to showcase it to the world in the hope that people will visit us again in years to come.”
The Grand Départ Stage 1 will leave Leeds on July 5 for a 190-kilometre ride through the National Park to Harrogate.
The route will go along Wharfedale, Bishopdale, Wensleydale and Swaledale, with climbs over Kidstones from Wharfedale into Bishopdale, Buttertubs Pass from Wensleydale to Swaledale and then out of Grinton towards Leyburn.
On the following day the cyclists will skirt through the southern edge of the National Park as they ride past Bolton Abbey on their way from York to Sheffield.
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