Friday July 6 Events

Tour de France Events
The Tour de France has inspired many events along the route and at the start in London and the finish in Canterbury. In addition many villages are organising flower displays, which should look good not only at ground level, but also from the helicopter. Watch out for impromptu events, and along the route pubs and cafes should make you welcome.

The dates below are for events across London and Kent being held on Friday July 6, Saturday July 7 and Sunday July 8. The listings contain Exhibitions, rides, festivals and more, and are arranged by date.

Our sister sites www.londoncyclesport.com, www.roadcyclinguk.com, www.shecycles.com and www.bikemagic.com contain many events held over the month

Race - Race : Event - Fete, Festival, Happening : Ride Social rides : Exhb - Exhibitions

Event- People's Village - Go Ride sessions in Hyde Park.
Hyde Park in London will be hosting a fantastic weekend of cycling activities open to the public during the Tour's visit. From 4pm - 9pm there will be Go-Ride 'come-and-try-it' sessions, incorporating fun cycling skills.

Event- The Opening Ceremony
The team presentation takes place in Trafalgar Square from 6pm onwards.

Event- Materials in Bicycles conference. Institute of Materials, Carlton House Terrace, SW1.9am - 5pm. Presentations from Olympic Gold medallist Chris Boardman, Dr. Alex Moulton, Carlton Reid, Mike Burrows and Richard Hallett. To register: www.iom3.org/events/bicycles

Race- Mini Tour de France.
Maidstone Leisure Centre and Mote Park.
1- 5.30pm. Cycling focussed event for school children and community, including time trials, static mountain biking, cycle safety sessions.

Event- French and Continental Market.
Gravesend Town Centre. 10am - 5pm. Market stalls selling wide range of French produce.

Event- The CycleFit Open House
To celebrate the The Grand Départ, London based Cyclefit are holding open days at their Covent Garden base over Friday and Saturday; at 11-13 Macklin Street. They will be offering simple refreshments and hopefully live TV coverage of the event on Saturday until 14:30.

The Colnago family are allegedly visiting at around 16.00 on Friday 6th July to view at our specially built Team Replica's (Milram, Rabobank and Tinkoff) and Alessandro Petacchi's actual Giro race-bike which we currently have on display.

Julian - Julian@cyclefit.co.uk

Exhb- Tour Exhibition. Ashford Library.
A collection of contemporary works, inspired by the Tour De France. All work has been created especially for the exhibtion by members of Ashford Visual Artists. 9am - 6pm.

Event- Cyclefest - Maidstone.
Maidstone Cyclefest 1.30 - 3pm. The event is aimed at schools and it will also open to the public from 3.30 - 5pm. Four members of British Cycling staff who will deliver a Go-Ride 'come-and-try-it' session. Go-Ride / TdF T-shirts will be given to participants as well as Go-Ride information. The event focuses around cycling as both a sport and mode of transport.

Event- Bicycle Ballet Performance.
South Bank, outside National Theatre. 6.15pm. A performance on bicycles to welcome the Tour de France.
Further information: www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/wts

Exhb- The Tour du Monde exhibition.
Oakley and Getty Images Exhibition. 46 Eastcastle Street, London W1W 8DX. Free exhibition of stunning photography, rare athlete memorabilia, including Lance Armstrong's jersey and sunglasses. www.gettyimages.com www.oakley.com

Exhb- Eyes on the Tour de France.
County Hall exhibition space, South Bank. 10am-6.30pm. Major retrospective of photographer Graham Watson's images of the Tour de France. Contact: Ann Higginson (Shadetree Sports London) 020 8878 9117 - ann@shadetreesports.com

Exhb- Round and Around: Cycles and Cycling Past to Present.
Canterbury Royal Museum and Art Gallery 18 High Street. Monday to Saturday. 10am to 5pm (last admission 4.45pm). Canterbury Museum 01227 475220

Special exhibition putting Tour de France in context and featuring images of cycling from Penny Farthing to BMX, with a real Boneshaker and modern road-racer, as well as cycle accessories. Includes photographs of early cyclists in Canterbury district from museum and library collections, many of them never shown before, as well as posters, advertisements and cartoons from the British Cartoon Archive. Free admission

Exhb- London Design Museum - I love my bike activities.
Free anytime day or night. Fixed exhibition in the Design Museum tank - a survey of fixed gear bikes from 1888 to the present day. Featuring four significant fixed wheel bicycled along with an exploded, annotated 3D diagram of a fixed geraed bike lasered into a sheet of glass. www.designmuseum.org

Exhb- Science Museum Cycling Display
Visitors will be able to see a display of cutting-edge and world famous bikes which are allowing cyclists to ride faster than ever before, including bikes now officially banned from the Tour. Experts will also be on hand to explain the latest technology and gadgets. The event will take place in the Antenna science news gallery from Wednesday 25-Friday 27 July.

Exhb- Cycling heroes photography
Cycling dominates the cultural and sporting landscape in Flanders. It is the everyman sport - every village has its cycle race; children dream of being champions. This exhibition, featuring the powerful work of Panos Pictures photographer Stephan Vanfleteren, pays tribute to the Flandrien – the tough, determined, unsophisticated heroes of the Tour of Flanders and the Paris-Roubaix – cyclists who specialise in some of the worst roads and weather conditions imaginable in bike racing.

The exhibition is at the HOST Gallery in EC1 and will run from 20th June to 31st July