Wuthering Bikes

The Grand Départ has arrived in Yorkshire. The riders will push off from Leeds on Saturday 5 July on the first stage of the Tour de France. Over the next two days, spectators will line the roads of Leeds, Harrogate, York and Sheffield and places in between to catch a glimpse of last year’s winner Chris Froome and a whole peloton of potential winners and team riders.

For weeks, the area has been gearing up for Le Tour with bike-themed plays, exhibitions, films and other art projects. In Leeds City Museum, photographer Casey Orr, writer and musician Boff Whalley and arts producer Jenny Harris are taking an un-Tour-isty look at cycling in the Bicyclism exhibition. Jenny tells 'The War Cry' that the bike has pushed social changes that gave greater freedoms to women and working-class people.

‘Cycling was democratising, because you didn’t have to have a huge amount of money to ride a bicycle,’ she says. ‘At one point it had power to change people’s lives. So we wanted to make an exhibition about ordinary, everyday cycling.’

New portraits and crowd-sourced photographs from family albums - ranging from Victorian pictures, through faded Polaroids to digital images - show what cycling represents to people. ‘There is a point in your childhood when you realise you can cycle off, even if it’s only round the block,’ says Jenny. ‘We’ve picked up lots of stories from people about that moment when you realise you have this ability to leave your parents behind.

‘The Tour de France is focused on Lycra and speed and men,’ says Jenny. ‘Our exhibition is adjacent to the start of the Grand Départ and we wanted to say there’s a whole other side of cycling which is about simply getting around, pleasure, community and companionship.’

Some people are also looking out for another side to Le Tour. Encouraged by Rod Ismay, a member of the Yorkshire Association of Change Ringers who describes himself as a ‘bellringer and Tour de France addict’, churches along the route plan to ring their bells in celebration before the cyclists pass.

And churches are opening their doors to fans. As well as staying open for anyone who wants to park their bike, seek shelter from the weather or find a quiet place, All Saints Ilkley is running a sports café and showing Le Tour on a big screen to enable spectators to see what happens to the riders when they’re not speeding past its doors. The Rev Patrick Bateman, Vicar of All Saints, says: ‘For us, the Tour is about more than cycling; it’s about community. Our church wants to show hospitality, care and love.’

The church’s motivation to show love is linked with its desire to help people find connections with God - who, says one Bible writer, ‘is love’ (1 John 4:8 Good News Bible).

Over the course of history, many people have found that God’s love helps them whether what they’re going through is a pleasure or an uphill struggle; forgives them for the ugly attitudes they have shown in the past; and offers them a hope for the future that cannot be punctured. They have discovered the truth that we can trust God - at every stage of our lives.

UK & Ireland War Cry 5 July 2014