Rochdale Ramblers Tour de France Banner

Rochdale Ramblers Tour de France Banner

A Tour de France Banner made by Freda Moody for Rochdale Ramblers will be displayed at Rochdale Ramblers meeting point on Sunday 6 July.

Rochdale Ramblers will be watching the race with ramblers from the Greater Manchester Area.

Walk and Watch the Tour de France at Blackstone Edge

Getting to the start of the walk

a) Road closures and their impact – The A58 will be closed from very early in the morning (6 or 7am). The closure will take place immediately before the railway bridge at Church Street, Littleborough (SD 939 163). This means that you will NOT be able to turn right into Hollingworth Road. Access from the A58 to Hollingworth

Lake Visitors Centre Pay and Display car park (900 spaces £2.20 for over 4 hours) should be made via Smithy Bridge Road and Lake Bank and Rakewood Road.

Alternatively, 50 cars can be parked at Smithy Bridge station (SD 926 151) for free
and there is plenty of space available in the adjoining side streets.

Note that in Hare Hill Park (SD 936 166) there will be a number of events starting
early morning and also a large screen showing the race. Parking in the vicinity of the
park should be avoided because side roads will be closed as they become congested.
For those travelling from outside Rochdale consider using the M62 and leaving at

Junction 21, following the A640 to the first set of traffic lights turning right into

Kiln Lane followed by the B6225 Wild House Lane and on to Smithy Bridge.

If you come by train alight at Smithy Bridge station (make sure the train stops there).

If you do go to Littleborough station walk south along Hollingworth Road to the Lake.

b) Meeting for the start of the walk – there will be two starts to the walk. For those
making their way to Smithy Bridge station the walk will commence from the station
car park at 8.00am. We will then make our way to the Visitors Centre at Hollingworth Lake (SD 940 152) where there will be a 8.30am departure.

c) The proposed route for the walk – Clegg Moor, Broad Head Drain, Aiggin Stone,

Old Packhorse Road to the viewing position at SD 982 182. The distance from the Visitors Centre is approximately 5 miles and the grade is moderate. We estimate our
arrival at our viewpoint around 11.00am and we will stay there for approximately 4 hours.

What we will see and when

a) The ‘caravane’ - precedes the race riders and consists of a procession of 400 vehicles which are used to promote goods and services of the official race sponsors. The first
vehicle should reach our viewpoint at 12.10pm and the caravane will take more than an hour to pass.

b) The first of the 198 riders from the 21 teams should pass the viewpoint at approximately 2.00pm. They will be within sight for 1.25 miles as they descend to Baitings.

c) The riders will be followed by a procession of support vehicles – spare bikes, food and water, paramedics, race officials and race commentators.

d) Three helicopters will fly overhead with race officials, commentators and
other media personnel and French security .

Picnic arrangements
We will arrive at our viewpoint in time for a picnic before the first events so bring
sufficient food and drink to last for the day as all local pubs and cafes will be very busy.
Leaving around 3.00pm we will return to Hollingworth Lake car park. Note that
the A58 road will be closed for 2 hours after the riders have gone through.

We plan to have a Rochdale Ramblers welcomes the Tour banner at our viewpoint.

Wear colourful jerseys, brings some flags as over 188 countries and 2 billion people
will be watching the race! If you prefer to go direct to our viewpoint feel free to join
us but remember you’ll have to walk in to get there and also allow plenty of time.