Sir, – Many thanks to everyone who help make the Tour de France a huge success.

Just a few were North Yorkshire County Council for making the roads safe for cycling and road sweeping on the entire route, the 10,000 (21,000 applied) volunteers who helped crowd control, Leyburn Chamber of Commence and Town Council for helping fill the main square with thousands of spectators and even the beer pump repair company who had a man on foot to ensure the pumps could keep working. Events like this don’t “just happen”.

Special thanks also to the spectators who stacked litter neatly in now surplus green bins emptied by Richmondshire District Council by 9am next morning – no litter or litter louts here.

Leyburn had extra glory with a three-minute slot on BBC Look North the night before, many Dales “yellow landmarks” featured in the daily ITV 4 live coverage and my wife raised a special cheer to the Yorkshire tea vehicles in the massive cavalcade.

I had the best cycling experiences of my life watching the race pass within feet and then cycling from Grinton Moor to Leyburn in a continuous sea of a three-mile line of cyclists descending slowly so as to safely pass those who had walked to the summit or rode up with parents on fairy cycles.

There must have been more than 7,500 people in Leyburn Square by the time I found a pinhole space to watch the finish on the giant TV screen.

Another few thousand spectators lined the route to below Ellerclose Road – Leyburn must have got more than the maximum forecast of 10,000 lining the route.

I expect a few will whinge that the crowds were so large the roads were kept closed for Health and Safety longer than originally planned. That aside the day demonstrated to those who never experience life outside a metal box on four wheels – wow!

LEONARD SHEPHERD Ellerclose Road, Leyburn.