Clifton CC

I had a couple of leaflets thrust into my hot, sticky hand by a fellow participant at a recent York Environment Forum meeting, the contents of which I'm passing on (and apologies for duplication if there are already links to either elsewhere on the discussion board):-

-Tour de Yorkshire - Sponsored ride of the Stage One route for Railway Children charity, 13th July. Info at http://www.railwaychildren.org.uk/tourdeyorkshire- individual riders or Business Relay.
-Tour de Brass - 21/22 June, a weekend of brass band concerts as part of the 100 day cultural festival. "Cyclists are invited to join in by riding between events with a YELLOW BATON for presentation to each conductor. Choose your starting point and ride to any of these:- Otley / Muker / Ripon / Leyburn / Knaresborough / Hade Edge / Hebden Bridge / Ilkley / York - all subject to confirmation of day and time". Info and contact details via http://brassedon.org/tour-de-brass/ .

..and more info from the wonderful Kate Lock of York's Brassed On re the yellow batons:-

All the brass band concerts for the weekend of 21 and 22 June are confirmed now and full details are at http://brassedon.org/tour-de-brass/ . We have a programme of outdoor concerts in York on Saturday 21 June, taking place in two locations (Parliament Street and Coppergate Shopping Centre), as well as a series of (mostly outdoor) concerts around Yorkshire on 21st and 22nd June in locations that are on or near the two stages of the Grand Depart.

We now have yellow conductor’s batons commissioned and being made for us, which is very exciting. What we would like to do is to be able to deliver these batons, by bike, to each of the Yorkshire concerts for the start of their programmes (times & venues on website). In York, I think we only need to get the batons there for the start of the first bands on in Coppergate at 10.30 and Parliament Street (Food Festival Marquee) at 11.00.

If someone fancied heading out with a baton to any of the other concerts afterwards – say, Ripon, which starts at 2.00pm – that might work, but I will need to check they haven’t got anything organised themselves (I know Otley Band has something lined up). I don’t know if Leyburn and Muker have anything sorted yet – they both start at 3.00pm but I don’t know what the distances are, or how fast you guys go!! And we have an evening concert at Brighouse at 7.30pm on Saturday too.

Also, Ron Healy has offered to help spread the word with cycling clubs, so if you are thinking of riding out to another location, please liaise with him, too (ronhealy at hotmail dot com)

We do need cyclists for the gigs on Sunday in Hebden Bridge and Knaresborough and, possibly, Ilkley (though strictly speaking it’s not our gig, but I think they’d be up for it.) And there is also the Black Dyke concert at York Barbican – I wonder if someone could wheel onto the stage with a baton for Nick Childs? Ooh health and safety … (editor's note - what the hell, go for it)

I would like to arrange a photocall in York soon with some cyclists and the yellow batons and our baton-maker, Pat Hunter, so if you get a positive response from your club, can you please put out a call for a couple of Lycra-clad volunteers? It would be a weekday morning probably but will let you know.

In the meantime, I will email the bands to find out which ones definitely have something organised. I know the York ones don’t. Thanks so much!