Tour de Yorkshire land art and best dressed winners announced!
The winners of the 2018 Tour de Yorkshire Land Art and Best Dressed competitions have been announced at a special event at the Welcome to Yorkshire office in Leeds.
Welcome to Yorkshire Chief Executive Sir Gary Verity DL unveiled the five lucky winners with James Mitchinson, Editor of The Yorkshire Post who were media partners for both competitions.
Entries were submitted in the run up to the race before being shortlisted and put to a public vote on the Tour’s official website at letouryorkshire.com. Thousands of votes were counted and the winners of each competition are as follows:
Land Art Competition - Confetti Land Art, Wentworth Woodhouse
Wentworth Woodhouse employed artist James Brunt and his team at The Landmark Collective to create a 140m x 150m confetti design on its front lawn which included symbols and imagery associated with the house’s rich history. As well as being picked up on the live race coverage, the design was also gained national attention after being featured on BBC’s The One Show. It is the second time a Brunt-designed piece has won the coveted Tour de Yorkshire Land Art Trophy after his ‘The Finest View’ design on Sutton Bank also topped a public vote in 2016.
Best Dressed Village - Kippax
3,000 metres of bunting, 2,500 hand flags, 2,000 balloons, 60 large flags and 18 painted bikes were distributed around Kippax to ensure the race received a stand-out welcome on stage three. Specially designed flowerbeds and numerous land art projects dotted around the village not only caught the eye of the riders, but of the voting public as well.
Best Dressed Town - Hornsea
Hornsea was featuring on the Tour de Yorkshire for the very first time in 2018 and went to town with a whole host of imaginative creations to celebrate the opening day of action. Community groups, businesses and schools all came together to paint bikes which were hung from various vantage points, while land art projects and other eye-catching installations such as decorated wheels, lobster pots and street signs were everywhere you looked.
Best Dressed Host Location - Ilkley
Ilkley was awash with colour as men’s and women’s pelotons flashed through on their approach to the Cow and Calf. Like every host location, the town pulled out all the stops to provide a brilliant backdrop for the race’s first-ever summit finish on stage two. Blue and yellow umbrellas hung from the trees and giant land art footprints were spread across the Wharfe Valley to guide the peloton home. Even a large anamorphic cow was painted onto the final ascent letting the riders know they were closing in on the finish line.
Spirit of the Tour - Samantha Whitley from Garforth
The Spirit of the Tour award recognises an individual, community or business that fully embraces the essence of the Tour, and Samantha Whitley is a more than worthy first recipient. Samantha worked tirelessly to bring the Garforth community together ahead of the race by recruiting volunteers, painting bikes, dressing shop windows, managing a Facebook group, and much, much more. Garforth was transformed into a sea of yellow and blue for the second stage and Samantha deserves special praise for her vital role in making that happen.
Welcome to Yorkshire Chief Executive Sir Gary Verity DL said: “It’s given me great pleasure to honour the fantastic people and locations that helped make this year’s Tour de Yorkshire the biggest and most colourful one yet. Every one of them went above and beyond the call of duty and put on a show for the 12.5 million people watching the race around the world.
“Our prize winners deserve special praise but we can’t forget all the other people, villages, towns and cities that went to great lengths to celebrate our race as well. It brought a lump to my throat as I drove the route this year with seemingly every inch of it covered in flags, banners and bunting. It’s that support which makes the Tour such a special event, and Yorkshire such a unique county.”
The Yorkshire Post Editor James Mitchinson said: “We’re proud to be associated with these competitions as they encompass the spirit of Yorkshire and honour those people who made the county look its best when the Tour de Yorkshire was beamed to 190 countries around the world. It was great to see what it meant to the people receiving these awards and we hope to be part of it for many years to come.”
Land Art competition winner Dominic Somers, representing Wentworth Woodhouse, said: “It feels incredible to have won this prize and it acknowledges all the hard work our team, the team at The Landmark Collective, the volunteers, and all the local schoolchildren put in to bring our artwork to life. It was an amazing opportunity to be part of the Tour de Yorkshire and it really put a spotlight on Rotherham and Wentworth Woodhouse. I’m delighted everything came together and we’ll try to raise the bar again in the future.”
Best Dressed Village winner Dominic Woolnough, representing Kippax, said: “It feels fantastic that Kippax has won, and it’s an amazing award for the whole community. All the hard work was definitely worth it and the comments we received were amazing – people were saying things like ‘I’ve lived in Kippax for 60 years and never seen this level of community spirit’ – so that was great. The Tour de Yorkshire had a massive influence on our village and we’d absolutely dress it up again if the race was to return.”
Best Dressed Town winner Sally Richardson, representing Hornsea, said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to have won and we can’t quite believe it to be honest! The whole community rallied around in preparation for the Tour de Yorkshire coming and we definitely pulled it off. The town looked great, there was a real carnival atmosphere, and we’re all thrilled to have won. We really, really want the Tour de Yorkshire to come back to Hornsea again now!”
Best Dressed Host Location winner Saira Ali, representing Ilkley, said: “We’re absolutely chuffed to bits that Ilkley has been voted Best Dressed Host Location. It was a lot of work to get everything ready but definitely worth all the effort. It was a great experience to be able to bring different communities together and we’re fortunate so many people wanted to get involved. Schools, business and organisations all contributed so this was very much a team effort. We really enjoyed it and the day itself was one big party!”
Spirit of the Tour winner Samantha Whitley, from Garforth, said: “It’s a really lovely feeling to have won and it’s really nice that Garforth has been recognised. This award is not just for me, but for a whole group of volunteers and schoolchildren that got involved and made Garforth looking brilliant on race day. That day was fantastic and all the effort was absolutely worth it.”
The 2018 edition saw the men’s race grow from three stages to four and the Asda Tour de Yorkshire Women’s Race double in size from one day to two. Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet triumphed in the men’s event while American star Megan Guarnier took the female title.
Next year’s race is set to attract its strongest-ever field as the sport’s star riders look to visit the county in preparation for the 2019 UCI Road World Championships which take place in September.
