Things to do When You're not Boating, No.2: Le Tour de France (encore)

The peleton coming through Knaresborough

Today's Tour visit  was much easier and more straightforward. There wasn't the excitement of being almost on the finish line - and no big screen to follow the action - and being near the start of the stage meant that the racing was not as exciting. But on the other hand it was all happening a five-minute walk from our hosts' front door.

We were able to walk up to the High Street a reasonable length of time before the race was due, enjoy the atmosphere and, after it had passed, walk back home again to see the rest of the stage on TV (switching to BBC for the Wimbledon final during the distressingly frequent and lengthy advert breaks on the ITV coverage).  In fact the only disappointment of the whole weekend was that the passage of the race through Grenoside, a little village outside Sheffield at the top of the "Cote de Oughtibridge" (or Jawbone Hill as the locals call it), where my mother came from and where I spent all my childhood summer holidays, took place during one such break!