Excitement is mounting as news of the route for the Grand Depart of Le Tour Yorkshire (the first two stages of the Tour de France, July 2014) is announced. Yorkshire has always been a great draw for cycling enthusiasts – some of whom have been captured on film over the years, so to take part in our Tour celebrations, here is a reminder of the famous Milk Race as it passed through Yorkshire in 1965.  Fittingly made by one of Yorkshire’s finest filmmaking couples, the Ramsdens, the film...

Excitement is mounting as news of the route for the Grand Depart of Le Tour Yorkshire (the first two stages of the Tour de France, July 2014) is announced.
Yorkshire has always been a great draw for cycling enthusiasts – some of whom have been captured on film over the years, so to take part in our Tour celebrations, here is a reminder of the famous Milk Race as it passed through Yorkshire in 1965. 
Fittingly made by one of Yorkshire’s finest filmmaking couples, the Ramsdens, the film exemplifies the county’s rich cycling tradition; which includes famous Yorkshire cyclists Barry Hoban from Wakefield, Malcolm Elliott from Sheffield, and the first Briton to finish the Tour de France, Brian Robinson, from Huddersfield.  And, of course, we shouldn’t forget – world champion Beryl Burton as seen in British Cyclo Cross Championship (1962). 
Cyril and Betty Ramsden were an exceptional amateur filmmaking couple from Leeds, prominent as members of Leeds Camera Club Cine Circle.  Beginning in 1945, the couple produced an outstanding collection of over 50 films.  This film is most probably their last, along with another on Goathland, made at the same time in 1965.  For more on the Ramsdens and their film collection see the Context for Humber Highway. 
This part of the film shows the classic milk race as it passes through Hutton-Le-Hole in the North Yorkshire Moors.  Although on the other side of the York Valley to where the first legs of the 2014 Tour de France are being staged in Yorkshire, it exemplifies a very similar kind of terrain to the Yorkshire Dales, although the geology is different.  This would have been the 11th stage of the race, from Bridlington to Scarborough (over 14 stages in total), which took place on the 9th June, and was won by the Polish Wladyslaw Kozlowski – although the race as a whole was won by Leslie West of Britain.
The Tour of Britain is of course much less known than its much bigger rival in France.  But it has been around in one form or another, apart from a five year break between 1999 and 2004, since 1944.  It developed out of a dispute within the National Cyclists' Union, when a breakaway group wanted mass cycling races on the roads (at the time illegal)  – a British version of the Tour de France– and formed the breakaway British League of Racing Cyclists.  It is perhaps surprising that the first race took place in August 1944, whilst the Second World War was still some way from being over.  The race had various sponsors until the Milk Marketing Board first sponsored it in 1958, and continued to do so for the next 35 years, when the Board was dissolved.
At this time Yorkshire was one of the major forces in British cycling, with Billy Holmes from Hull having won it four years previously, and Bradford’s Harry Bond regularly winning the Yorkshire Three Peak Cyclo-Cross Challenge – close to the planned route for the first stage of the Tour de France in 2013. But the real big name in Yorkshire, British and world cycling at the time was Beryl Burton of Morley Cycle Club.  Unfortunately women weren’t allowed to compete in the Tour de France, otherwise many contend that she would have given the men a real run for their money.  When the first women’s Tour de France was eventually established, Beryl was asked to compete, but at 47, although still winning races, it was perhaps too much and she turned it down.  Nevertheless, her record tally, including five times world champion, remains unsurpassed for a British rider – see the Context for British Cyclo Cross Championship (1962) for much more on Beryl.
This strong connection between Yorkshire and cycling remains, with Tour de France competitors Barry Hoban from Wakefield and Malcolm Elliott from Sheffield, and the first Briton to finish the Tour de France, Brian Robinson, from Huddersfield.  More recently we have Lizzie Armitstead from Otley, and Mark Cavendish’s mother living in Harrogate.  It is to be hoped that Yorkshire can set a better example of the sport of cycling than its now disgraced former hero Lance Armstrong, who was stripped of his seven Tour victories in October of 2012.  Certainly Bradley Wiggins knows the territory well, and if he wins again he might receive the Freedom of Yorkshire to go with his knighthood.
References
Owen Mulholland, Beryl Burton - The Coelacanth of Cycling
Beryl Burton