Harrogate - A Tour De Force for the Tour de France?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolreport/28160689

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The Tour de France is suddenly everywhere and has set our town alight!

Until we researched the impact of the Tour de France on Harrogate for BBC School Report, none of us really knew anything about this event or the fact that it was coming through Harrogate.

However, thanks to School Report and local efforts, we now know a million facts about it - we are so on the ball we could practically do the race ourselves! In fact, we have a mini racetrack on our playground so some of us actually have.

Our school has been in preparation for this amazing occasion for a while.

We have held assemblies based on Le Tour, which have taught us about its history and helped us to understand the importance of each individual jersey.

We have even organised two days off-timetable during which the students have been offered a range of fun activities, including laser quest, bowling and ice skating in an effort to promote healthy living across the school and to prepare us for the sportiness of Le Tour.

Closer to the event itself, like magic, we all arrived at school one day to find bikes on the windows, an actual bike spray painted yellow on our wall, jerseys and bunting everywhere!

We even have the Tour route spray painted on to our playground! Our lessons in the week before the peloton arrives have been an explosion of cycling.

Our teachers are going crazy for it and have been encouraging students to get into the spirit of things. We've had exercise bikes around so we can cycle 'the route', themed lessons - and we're even wearing yellow on Friday!

The Tour De France is having a big impact on Harrogate High School, giving the school an exciting opportunity to be the host for about 300 volunteer tour-makers!

We are excited that the school is going to be participating in the actual events of the weekend and some students are even helping on the Saturday, meeting and greeting the volunteers and showing them around. Some of our staff will be helping at 05:30 BST on the Sunday - that's dedication!

We decided to see what people are doing for Le Tour and if they are as excited as our School Report team.

Melissa's granddad is so horrified by the fact that he cannot get out of his house, that he is going all the way to Germany to avoid it! We think this is over the top and he could stay a bit closer to home and still avoid Le Tour.

For example, Jasmine said she is "running away with her family to an undisclosed secret location in England"!

Some of us have embraced the spirit of Le Tour and are taking on all things French. Leigh's family are having a French dinner party complete with berets and stripes, which she said is "very ooh la la"!

Lots of us are planning to go to Skipton Road to see the race go by and there are stands on the Stray where we can watch the race on the big screen.

Most of our school is going to be there and our school has a photo competition for the best 'selfie with a bike'.

It's not just our school which is buzzing in anticipation - Harrogate has gone mad too! There is knitted T-shirt bunting all over the place, plus yellow bikes on every available wall - we've lost count of how many! There's even a monkey riding one of them!

One bike shop has changed its name to Le Grand Velo Rouge especially and practically every shop has something related to Le Tour in its windows.

There's a tree in town which has been carved with a French flag and it has the Eiffel Tower carved in the top of it as well as bicycles.

This will be a lasting memory for us long after the cyclists have zoomed past!

We are proud of Harrogate because it has tried really hard to celebrate this event and its uniqueness stands out.