AS stage one of the race loops from Leeds to Harrogate, there will be ample platforms from which to view the race as it nears the Lancashire-Yorkshire border.

Skipton, just seven miles from Earby, in Pendle, is the place to be on July 5, with up to 12,000 visitors expected to line the market town’s High Street.

Family-friendly activities will be spread across two sites in the town with big screens, music and entertainment throughout the day before the cyclists head north through Grassington.

Stage two of Le Tour will come within five miles of Todmorden, passing through Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd, and into historic Lancashire for a few hundred metres at Turvin Road, between Cragg Vale and Littleborough.

Calder Homes Park, in Hebden Bridge, will welcome 5,000 spectators on July 6, with arts and theatre events to entertain the crowd before the riders pass over the hills.

Cragg Vale, pictured, will also be a popular vantage point for many – it claims to be the start of the longest continuous gradient in England.