Bedale has won an award for being the best dressed host town during this year’s Tour de Yorkshire.
The winners of the 2019 Tour de Yorkshire Best Dressed competition have been confirmed by race organisers Welcome to Yorkshire today.
Over 7,000 people from around the world cast their votes on the official Tour de Yorkshire Twitter page @letouryorkshire and the winners of the four categories are as follows:
Best Dressed Village – Kippax
This is the second year in a row that Kippax has won this award and the villagers went to extraordinary lengths once again to ensure the race received a stand-out welcome on stage two. The whole community came together to decorate the village and seemingly every inch was adorned with balloons, flags and bunting. Numerous shops had amazing window displays, the brownies and guides created scarecrows on bikes, and Kippax in Bloom ensured there were hundreds of yellow and blue flowers planted to mark the occasion.
Best Dressed Town – Pontefract
Pontefract also featured on day two and went to town (pardon the pun!) with a whole host of imaginative creations. Various community groups and businesses worked together to make an outstanding impression. Over 50 bikes were put up around town along with a massive 3.5km of bunting. Handmade pom poms were also hung from trees along the route and three giant cycling jerseys were draped over central landmarks. Add to that a host of flags and specially decorated bike wheels, and it was no surprise that Pontefract proved so popular with the voters.
Best Dressed Host Location – Bedale
Bedale was awash with colour as the men’s and women’s pelotons reached their exciting conclusions on 3rd May. Like every host location, the town pulled out all the stops to provide a brilliant backdrop to the action. Yellow and blue cardboard cyclists were displayed on every street with large Yorkshire flags and miles and miles of bunting. Numerous shopkeepers also produced striking window displays and all the schools in town worked hard to create some spectacular land art pieces. Even the church bells rang out to welcome the riders home as Bedale made a more-than memorable impression.
Spirit of le Tour – Paul Flintoft from Kippax
The Spirit of le Tour award recognises an individual, community or business that fully embraced the essence of the Tour, and Paul Flintoft is a more than worthy recipient. Paul worked tirelessly to bring Kippax together ahead of the race and his butcher’s shop on the High Street became the nerve centre the village’s unbelievable support. His Tour de Yorkshire-themed window dressing was a joy to behold and he spent hours sourcing, painting and installing yellow and blue bikes, flags and bunting around the village, as well as blowing up countless balloons and distributing them to other shops along the route. He also led an enthusiastic band of volunteers to get everything ready for the race and made sure all the local media were aware of Kippax’s unbelievable celebrations. Kippax was transformed into a sea of yellow and blue and Paul deserves special praise for his vital role in making that happen.
The winners will now be invited to the Welcome to Yorkshire offices next month to receive special commemorative plaques which will be displayed in each location.
Welcome to Yorkshire’s Commercial Director Peter Dodd said: “The Best Dressed competition is our way of recognising all those places and people that helped make this year’s Tour de Yorkshire one of the most eye-catching, colourful and vibrant editions yet.
“It was a really difficult task compiling the shortlists but thousands of people have cast their votes over the last week and picked some very worthy winners.
“We’re looking forward to welcoming those winners to the Welcome to Yorkshire office now to honour their remarkable efforts.
“We are truly grateful for the support the Tour de Yorkshire receives right across the county – from local authorities, community groups, schools, businesses and residents – and it’s that support that makes the Tour such a special event, and Yorkshire such a brilliant county.”
The 2019 edition of the Tour de Yorkshire saw Chris Lawless become the first British winner of the men’s race while legendary cyclist Marianne Vos emerged triumphant in the Asda Tour de Yorkshire Women’s Race.
As well as the Best Dressed competition, Welcome to Yorkshire are also running the Tour de Yorkshire Land Art competition.
Voting for that is still open until midnight on Friday 14 June and you can do so at letouryorkshire.com/landart
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