The day the Milk Race came to Seacroft
The Tour De France may be coming to Leeds but I doubt it could possibly ever match the excitement of the day that Seacroft held it's own stage of the Milk Race in the summer of '77.
The Milk Race used to be the major cycling tour event around the UK in the 60's 70's and 80's. I was a 11 year old lad from Seacroft when one Saturday in 1977 the Milk Race came to our bit of Leeds.
Stage 4 of that year's race was a two parter, that morning the stage left Sheffield and finished in Seacroft. I went with my friend Darren to join the crowds outside the Skyliner chip shop. We were all given free flags and paper hats blazoned with the Milk Marketing Board logo on them and we cheered and waved our little flags as the distorted voice of the commentator over the P.A system announced the cyclists were approaching. It was just a colourful blur as they flashed past us towards the finish line.
As the exhausted racers dismounted we rushed over to area where the team back up staff were changing the tyres and setting the bikes up for the next leg. I gawped open mouthed at the racing bikes and decided I would pester my parents to buy me a racing bike for Christmas. Then in the afternoon the second part of the stage took place with the race starting at the top of North Parkway with the cyclists route taking them around the (much loved and missed) Seacroft Shopping Centre and then the raced about 12 laps up and down the lanes of North Parkway.
North Parkway is long and narrow dual carriageway road that has a steepish descent at the bottom with the sharpest hairpin bend you could ever imagine at the bottom of the loop. As a kid growing up I rode my bike around that loop many times and quite a few times I've gone head first over the handlebars in a misjudged attempt to navigate the hairpin. So it was exiting to see the site about 100 cyclists in all their team colours flying down the hill towards that hairpain. I bet a few of them need to change their cycling shorts afterwards.
There were quite a few pile ups happen there. Anyway Darren and me made our way down towards the hairpin to get a good view of the action for the North Parkway loop stage. Actually the only thing I can clearly remember about this is that we both got chinned by a couple of big kids from the rough(er) part of Seacroft. But hey, getting chinned is all part of growing up I suppose and it didn't spoil the fun. And revenge was taken on one of the many 'Kentmere's vs Moresdale's' Sunday afternoon fist fights on Foxwood fields. Not that I advocate violence or anything, but that was the reality of growing in Seacroft in the 70's.
But I have great memories of the day the Milk Race came to Seacroft. That Xmas Santa brought me a shiny new 10 speed racing bike and I often rode it around the North Parkway Milk Race circuit. They could never hold the TDF on that circuit these days, or even a local charity bike race as sadly, very much like the rest of Seacroft in the '80 it went to the dogs (no, not another sporting event!). Ravaged by Thatcherism , the place became a wasteland during the 80's.
The North Parkway road itself is not fit for international cycle racing as its now full of potholes. The TDF 2014 route doesn't come near Seacroft but I bet the Milk Race will still be the best cycle race ever to come to Leeds for a long time to come yet. At least for us Seacrofter's!
Warren Smith
Memory added on January 25, 2013
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