Last night I watched live stage 1 of the Tour de France from Leeds to Harrogate . I have never seen so many people on the side of the road, great turn out . The chopper filming the race flew over what looks like several summits with trig points, not one SOTA flag to be seen on top. It is very special scenery with all them stone walls left me thinking of the poor buggers who picked the stones and built them.
Heh! Not sure how close the route gets to any SOTA summits, but there do seem to be quite a few flags in evidence, and folk perched on all sorts of unlikely-looking view points…
In reply to M0LEP:
Holme Moss is effectively Black Hill G-SP/002
In reply to M0EIQ:
Only with a very loose interpretation (ie outwith the rules) of the AZ Dick.
I saw some footage of the riders squeezing through the hordes on Buttertubs Pass yesterday and reminded Liam that we had done G/NP006 and G/NP030 from there in the past.
Tom M1EYP
In reply to M1EYP:
I wasn’t suggesting an activation from the car park 
In reply to VK5CZ:
Ian, the press are reporting a total of 2.5million people turned out to watch the tour go past in the 1st 2 days of stages.
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to all:
Yes Andy, I can confirm Harrogate yesterday was completely “rammed”. I volunteered as a uniformed Tour Maker - by the end of the day I was hoarse from giving directions to the toilets, fan zone, big screens and finish line. My knees were also discomnockerated after standing up for 8 hours. SOTA activating is far less tiring and I was home and asleep by 9.45pm!
Watching the full live coverage of Stage 2 in Yorkshire today was fantastic, exciting and had an unknown outcome on the finish line until a few minutes before the end. Watching TV during the day is something we don’t normally do in our house…
It was worth missing chasing time though as I could not concentrate on both tasks fully, so I switched off my HF gear at 1000z - however, thanks to all the activators QRV until that time from DL, DM, EA2, G, GM, HA, HB9, I, LA, OE, OK, SV who came on before the start of the race.
73 Phil G4OBK
PS for Ian - The race did not pass over any summits however, so no flags, it did pass close to several G/NP and G/SP summits though, in particular Great Whernside, Cracoe Fell, Shunner Fell, Black Hill and Buckden Pike to name a few. I don’t think the closed roads affected John G4YSS too much. John (using GX0OOO/P) goes up Great Whernside (NP-008) on an annual pilgrimage which always coincides with RSGB VHF NFD. I noticed he was QRV there yesterday when the race passed closed to his summit.
In reply to G4OBK:
You guys live in some great country . I was an observed trials rider for 15 years and I was checking out the rocky out crops for sections living the dream watching the cycling and looking for SOTA summits. I have watched both stages now it finished here 1 am Monday morning and I don’t ever remember seeing so many people on the side of the road in any tour stages ever. UK surely must go down in history having some of the best stone masons with all those walls and nicely made stone houses. No prefabs in that lot stuck together with Silastic.
73 Ian vk5cz …
In reply to VK5CZ:
Those walls were by-products of clearing the fields!
73
Brian G8ADD