WINNERS have been chosen for a competition celebrating the best Tour de Yorkshire displays in Middlesbrough.
The competition, run by Hillstreet Shopping Centre and lovemiddlesbrough.com, asked local schools, businesses and residents to send pictures of their creative efforts ahead of the Tour de Yorkshire, which comes to Middlesbrough on Sunday, May 1.
The winners in each of the three categories were offered a £200 Gift Card for the store of their choice within the Hillstreet Centre.
Following submissions showing a riot of yellow and blue across the town, winners have now been chosen after nearly 1,500 votes were submitted via the lovemiddlesbrough Facebook page.
In the schools category Chandlers Ridge Academy in Nunthorpe took the prize. Head teacher Louise Lidgard said: “We are delighted to have been involved with the local community in welcoming the Tour de Yorkshire to Nunthorpe.
“Last week we worked in partnership with the local police and ward councillor painting bikes for the area.
“The decorating of the front of the school has been a creative project enjoyed by the children, including our knitting club.
“We are very excited that we have won the Hillstreet centre competition for schools and we are all looking forward to the start of the Tour de Yorkshire on Sunday.”
In the business category The Orchard day centre on Lansdowne Road came up top in a competitive field. Operations manager Karen Cavana said: “The Orchard is very proud to have been selected as winners in the in the Hillstreet competition business category and will be spending our winning vouchers on the service users who attend our service.
“It gave the service users and staff a great opportunity to carry out a communal activity in producing all our decorations, which were all hand-made and the activity was really fun and inclusive for all here at the service”.
In the home category Lynne Hunton of Nunthorpe has got into the spirit with a yellow and blue bike in her garden. She said: “I am over the moon and looking forward to the weekend with the Tour coming up. Walking with my dog it is amazing to see all of the bikes decorating the route. I’ll be out on Sunday too to cheer on the cyclists.”
As well as the display competition Hillstreet Shopping Centre has teamed up with Total Fitness Middlesbrough and on Sunday, May 1, shoppers are invited to hop on a static bike and cycle as far as they can in one minute to be in with the chance of winning their very own bike.
Customers will also be able to obtain day guest passes to Total Fitness as well as gaining some valuable wellness top tips from a fitness coach.
Peter Drabble, Centre Manager at Hillstreet Shopping Centre which sponsored the displays, said: “We received some fantastic entries for the best Tour de Yorkshire display in Middlesbrough and the three winners went to a lot of effort and their enthusiasm and creativity shone through. At Hillstreet we love to support our local community and the Tour de Yorkshire has given us a great chance to do that.
“It’s going to be exciting to see the cyclists gather in Centre Square for the much-anticipated final stage of this year’s race. We’ll be celebrating in style on Sunday, May 1 and we hope the people of Middlesbrough join us for some family fun, on what will be a truly memorable weekend.”