WHEN I was a teenage cyclist, I spent a good deal of time competing in time trials and massed-start road races. Most were around Teesside although some were further north on Wearside or in west Durham, such as The Tour of the Durham Hills.

My racing ability quelled any thought of even witnessing Le Tour de France and it never occurred to me to holiday in France with my bike. Having never travelled overseas or even had a holiday in the UK (apart from my cycling tour mentioned last week), any thoughts of witnessing Le Tour, or even just one stage of it, never occurred to me. Much as I enjoyed the sport and the recreation it provided, I never thought I would see any stage of Le Tour and certainly never take part in it.

As a young and very keen bike rider, I was assured that no English racing cyclist had ever completed Le Tour let alone won it, although I believe some English riders, living and training in France, had competed but never won. As time passed, it seemed that no British rider would be capable of winning and so, sadly, I never developed an ambition to do so. The thought of attempting such a thing was the equivalent of me becoming President of the United States, or flying off to Mars.

However, one year I secured a copy of Mirroir Sprint, a news magazine dedicated to Le Tour. I have no idea how I came to possess it; I cannot recall buying it. My copy, which is still in my files, is dated July 24, 1950, which means it is 64 years old in a few days time. Full of sepia-tinted photographs, it is entirely in French and highlights stages eight, nine and ten of that year’s Tour de France.

Stage eight was from Angers to Niort (181km), stage nine was from Niort to Bordeaux (206km) with stage ten from Bordeaux to Pau (202km). Pau is a small town on the northern edge of the Pyrenees and some of the photos show the peloton heading into those mountains.

It was the massive interest generated by successive Tours de France that prompted the Daily Express to organise a Tour of Britain, the first such race in this country. It was to be a 14-day event held under the rules of the British League of Racing Cyclists, and it would run from August 19 to September 1, 1951. There would be 12 stages totalling 1,403 miles with the start at Hyde Park Corner and the finish on Hampstead Heath, both in London.

The 49 riders would head south from London to Hastings, then west along the coast via Brighton, Bournemouth and Plymouth, then north to Weston-super-Mare where there was a rest-day. This would be followed by crossing the Bristol Channel to Cardiff. The race then headed north to Wolverhampton, Warrington, Morecambe Bay, Carlisle and Glasgow before turning south via Peebles, Melrose and Newcastle.

Stage nine was Newcastle to Scarborough via Stockton-on-Tees and Guisborough. There was another rest day in Scarborough before the race headed south to York, Nottingham, then east to Norwich to begin the final stage to London.

Riders came from France, Ireland, Scotland and England with some British regional teams, and many were sponsored by cycle manufacturers. The winner of that first Tour of Britain was 22-year old Ian Steel of Scotland who was riding for Viking Cycles Ltd. I remember watching him in one of those Tours.

Unlike the Grand Depart of the Tour de France, that first Tour of Britain did not include the Yorkshire Dales, although both it and the second tour included stages across the North York Moors.

However, the 1954 Tour managed to include part of the Dales in a couple of stages – Manchester to Harrogate via Aberford and Wetherby, and then Harrogate to Whitley Bay via Leeming and Scotch Corner, also passing through Witton-le-Wear and Tow Law in County Durham.

The Tour of Britain continues with this year’s race beginning on Sunday, September 7, and continuing until Sunday, September 14, a short race compared with the Tour de France. It will depart from Liverpool and focus on the south west and southern areas, to finish in London while managing to avoid most parts of England east of the Pennines.

As a lad I went to watch the Tour of Britain wherever I could and whenever it passed nearby, and so this year I shall be present at the Grande Depart when stage two of the Tour de France leaves York Racecourse on Sunday, July 6, and after a non-racing tour of York’s ancient streets, races to Sheffield via the Dales and Peak District.

On three recent occasions before settling down to compile this week’s Diary, I noticed a green woodpecker in our garden. To be strictly honest, it was leaving the garden on all three occasions, having been inadvertently disturbed, probably when on our bird feeders, but it was easily identified by its pale green plumage, the red cap on its head, and its distinctive yellow rump. That flash of yellow is usually seen when the bird is in flight and is a ready form of identification.

This morning I did not witness this bird but my wife heard its highly recognisable laughing call somewhere in the neighbouring trees. We are fortunate in having trees around us, and they do attract woodpeckers.

The presence of the green woodpecker is usually announced by its distinctive laughing call which has earned the nickname of yaffle. This seems to be a widespread nickname and I have also heard it called a green popinjay. In Yorkshire, the old name was peckatree, although this was given to all our native woodpeckers.

The green was alternatively known as a treytapper, a treyclimber or a hufil, while the great spotted was a pied peckatree and the lesser spotted either a pied peckatree or a lahle black peckatree.

Usually, it is the great spotted species who visit our bird feeders, and so a visit by a green woodpecker, once common but now not so often seen, is a special treat. As a child, I used to explore a neighbouring woodland and one of the most common birds in the wood – more than 60 years ago – was the green woodpecker.

Numbers dwindled as the greater spotted variety increased, with the lesser spotted still around but not often seen in this part of the country. It seems to favour the southern regions but is difficult to observe due to its small size, about as big as a house sparrow but also because it manages to conceal its movements in foliage.

There used to be a curious superstition about woodpeckers. Rural people believed they had a special relationship with moonwort, a small fern. If a woodpecker found a nail obstructing its nest, it would pick a moonwort and lay it over the nail which, it was believed, enabled the bird to easily remove the nail. It was also believed that by rubbing its beak against a moonwort, a woodpecker could sharpen it until it could piece anything, even metal.