An amazing we weekend, not just in the whole of Yorkshire, but here in Great Ouseburn.
It was August 2013 when David Shields from Welcome to Yorkshire came to see us to tell us about their successful bid for the Grand Départ of the Tour De France 2014 to be here in Yorkshire. I have no idea to this day why it took our interest but it did and thankfully the Village Hall Committee became interested too. We went to various WTY & HBC meetings and decided we wanted to do something but first had to ‘sell’ it to the Village. At our first meeting we had a handful of people from the village who arrived with caution, but what a superb core of people. By the end of that night we knew we had sown the seed of something good but we didn’t know what. By the New Year the interest was growing and by our second meeting in February the ideas and offers of help were flooding in and our Go Le Tour Team was born.
The call for old bikes to have painted yellow to put round the village was incredible. The Bike sponsorship; I never thought in a million years it would appeal! Incredibly it did and we raised £120.00.
The memories of the bunting will be with me forever. When it was offered that we put up the bunting for the Spring Festival, not only was that a sign of how the Tour De France was starting to be recognised generally but a generous offer to highlight to the village that we were going to be part of it.
If that wasn’t a compliment in itself the amount of bunting that was made was incredible; there was a bunting party that produced enough to go down the avenue, metres of beautifully made linen bunting was made for the Hall, many made stretches were individually made put on houses and the children’s art work adorned the School railings. From traditional pennants, Marigolds, Teddy T’Shirts, Rosettes & Bras – Fantastic!
The Weekend was nearly upon us and we started the week with a Village Cycle ride. Three road routes and one off road, what a super, lazy summer Sunday morning we had!
To keep the village up to date with plans we put up Yellow notice boards and a window display in the shop.
Thursday night was suddenly here! A lovely village bar night launched our weekend with the ‘regulars’ propping up the bar and a lone camper! I am still not sure how but we got through a whole barrel of beer! 
Friday was an exciting, different, an unbelievable day for many reasons. Arriving at the café soon after it ‘opened’ we were presented with an amazing ‘Afternoon Tea’. The Café raised over £230.00.
Completely out of the blue, I was invited on behalf of the village to meet David Cameron to tell him all about our superb community and everything we were doing for Le Tour weekend. A proud moment to let our Prime Minister know what a super village we live in.
Friday Night was Auction Night. We had been donated the most amazing Lots and with a great Auctioneer the evening we raised £1347.00 incredible. Finishing with music and dancing, a great night.
Saturday Morning started with Breakfast. It intrigued everyone to start with and once the word spread it was incredibly successful and something that will always be remembered.
Many went and watched the Tour in Harrogate and area and others watched Yorkshire shine on the television.
Energy restored, back to the Hall for Saturday Night. Not once over the four days did the Bar slip in its professionalism. The Bars raised an incredible £1800.00!
Up and out in Lycra the village met for Sunday breakfast and the Great Ouseburn Peloton left for Whixley!
The ‘Caravan’ was exhilarating if not a little scary with its speed but playing on A59 was fun, the peloton was through so fast, the helicopters - heart rate raising – It was fantastic!
Coming back Sunday afternoon to the see all the families arrive in the sunshine and the children playing out on the Playing field was lovely to see. Rounders, Boules, Fencing. Connect 4, Jenga & the BBQ was a superb success with people able to spend a time out in the sunshine
and a settled group enjoying the Mens’ Wimbledon final on the Screen in the Club room resulted in a lovely, lovely afternoon.
The whole event was an superb village weekend and an amazing £4,868.00 was raised with an incredible donation from the Martin Foundation for £1000.00. Making a total of £5868.00 raised.
From the very beginning the Yorkshire Grand Depart wished that after all the hard work, investment and fun was over a legacy would be left. Yorkshire has definitely achieved this and on a more local level with the phenomenal amount of money raised Great Ouseburn can invest in updating the Village Hall for the future and one thing we also did was to have bike racks made for use over the weekend and now one will be given to the school and the other will be outside the Hall.
But as the sunset over a fabulous week the one true legacy was a super village weekend. Thank you to everyone.
Allison Wells
Go Le Tour Team
July 2014