Want to make your mark on the Tour de France in Yorkshire? Here's your chance to do just that

Have you ever dreamt of making your mark on the Tour de France? Well, if you can get to Yorkshire next week, you could have a chance of doing just that.

No stage of the world’s biggest annual sporting event is complete without aerial shots of some artwork put together by farmers along the route to mark the Tour’s passing (the fact there is a prize for the best helps).

This year, Fields of Vision, part of the Yorkshire Festival 2014, is appealing for mountain bikers who are free next Thursday 5 June to come to Oxenhope and help it create 12 artworks for the event.

Cyclists taking part will have to follow a defined route, the idea being that the more who adhere to it, and the more the grass is worn away, the better defined the eventual work will be.

The project is being run jointly by Young Farmers and led by Pennine Prospect and will form part of the backdrop to Stage 2 of the race from York to Sheffield.

The artist behind the concept – full details of which are being kept under wraps from now – is local too, Louise Lockhart from Hebden Bridge.

The event will be filmed by BBC Countryfile, which will also use helicopter footage.

It’s not just about creating the artwork, either – there is a competitive element, too.

Cyclists will take to the course at one-minute intervals, the first setting off at 10.30am, the last at 3.00pm, and will be given penalty points if they stray off-course.

There will also be a trophy for the winner, although the ultimate goal is to create a piece of Tour de France art of which Yorkshire can be proud.

There will be a leader board and the winner will receive a trophy however the key point of the exercise is to accurately follow the correct lines and thus accurately create the artwork that the artist intended. 

You can find out more information and register to take part at the Sue Ryder website, or by calling Andrew Wood on 01535 640176 or emailing him at andrew.wood [at] sueryder.org.uk.

The artworks will be opened on Saturday 7 June and will form part of a trail open until October this year.