Hello Friends,
We live in north Derbyshire not far from the border with Yorkshire. For months now, everyone has been going Tour de France mad. At the end of May, OH and I went on a cycle touring weekend in the Yorkshire Dales. Part of it followed the Day One Tour de France route.
We heard stories of £200 a night camping, and two stories of people who had put rooms overlooking the route up on ebay and getting bitds of £900 and £4000 respectively. Car parking was also looking expensive at £10 to park in a field some miles from the route.
We thought about driving over to Glossop and then riding to Holme Moss, but I had a feeling it would be rammed. Our next plan was to catch the train up to Sheffield for the finish. On Saturday we heard about 3 hour waits for trains home, so I decided I didn’t want to risk this on a Sunday evening.
I knew I wasn’t capable of a 60 mile round cycling trip and standing at the side of the road all day. I looked at the maps, did a bit of lateral thinking and realised we could drive to Hathersage, park in a district council car park for £5 for the day and then ride 11 miles to High Bradfield. I got up early on Sunday morning, made some sandwiches and got some snacks together. We drove up to Hathersage with the bikes in the car. It was clear one or two other people had the same idea, but we got parked easily.
The ride was quite challenging in places (pretty hilly) but we managed it in about an hour and a half and found a brilliant spot right next to the road. We had a wonderful time – the atmosphere was amazing and we were right next to the race. We also managed to attend the event without spending too much – it’s easy to overspend at these kinds of things if you don’t plan.
Have you managed to attend a major event without spending too much? Did you see the Tour de France this weekend?
Until next time, Tawney x
