Yes, I'm not sure what the 'Todd' is about, but having seen the smile on Shaun's face as the painkillers for his broken elbow kicked in, I'd say they might be involved ...
- Stage one, July 5: Leeds - Harewood - Otley - Ilkley - Skipton - Kettlewell - Aysgarth - Hawes - Reeth - Leyburn - Ripon - Harrogate
- Stage two, July 6: York - Knaresborough - Silsden - Keighley - Haworth - Hebden Bridge - Elland - Huddersfield - Holmfirth - Sheffield
- Stage three, July 7: Cambridge - Epping Forest - the Olympic Park - the Mall
The first stage seems to be taking an easy route through the Dales from Leeds to Harrogate with only one categorised climb. That's a shame, given what kind of monster stage would have been possible, but I suppose they didn't want that for day 1.
Day 2 does indeed pass through Hebden Bridge, within 400 metres of where I live. It is very nice of the Tour organisers to recognise the sacrifices that I made to go to watch previous TdF stages in Brighton and Kent, and this time bring the race to me!
Looking at the outline for stage 2, I would imagine that they are doing the obvious A-roads to Silsden rather than the more interesting climbs and descents on steep, narrow lanes. They could do a couple of nasty little climbs from Keighley to Haworth, but I reckon they won't, settling for the long drag up from Keighley to Cock Hill. After descending to Hebden Bridge, I'd love to see them go up through Cragg Vale on "England's longest continuous uphill gradient". It looks like they will do Holme Moss, and after that I imagine that they will do Snake Pass on the way to Sheffield.
A lot of the roads they'll be doing are not ones that I would choose for a forum ride, but we don't have hundreds of vehicles with us on our rides, and the safety of 200-odd riders in racing mode to worry about.
It would be tempting to go up one of the climbs to watch the riders go by but I have experienced big race crowds and the lonnnnnnnnnng waits involved before so I might just stroll into town with my camera and take my pictures from a suitable vantage point. I can think of the perfect place to look down on the peloton as it swoops by!
