THOUSANDS of spectators turned out to see the Tour de Yorkshire begin to wind its way through the county as one of the country's premier cycle races got off to a dramatic start.

Day one of the race ended with the shock announcement that Sir Bradley Wiggins had pulled out about 26km short of the finish line at Settle.

The four-time Olympic gold medallist had set off on the first stage of the 187km race from Beverley, but abandoned the race not far from the finish.

The 2012 Tour de France winner, who turned 36 on Thursday, did not give any interviews after the race and his team declined to give a reason for his withdrawal.

Stage One was won by Dylan Groenew, from team LottoNL-jumbo.

Meanwhile, preparations are well underway in North Yorkshire and Middlesbrough for the arrival of the Tour on Sunday.

Spectators lined the route and towns throughout North Yorkshire have been pulling out the stops to welcome the racers.

At Stokesley School today (Fri, April 29) more than a thousand people were involved in creating a celebratory flash mob dance.

The whole school turned out to take part in various sports on the playing field, before 1,300 staff and students broke into a dance routine to Coldplay’s A Sky Full of Stars.

In addition, the school created a 400 metre artwork depicting a Tour de Yorkshire bike complete with cyclist by spray-painting it on the school field which they hope will be picked up by the helicopter following the race on Sunday.

The school’s business manager Jayne Neal said: “Despite the rain we still managed to flash mob with all the staff and students. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to celebrate and we thought we should just go for it.”

Students had been raising money for the tour’s chosen charity, the RNLI, with a sponsored bike cycling challenge in the school foyer, with students competing against each other in their school house teams.

Many towns have hung out yellow and blue bunting, decorated bikes and created eye-catching window displays.

In Northallerton, one shop owner, Caz Pring from the Natural Knitter Wool Shop on Friarage Street, created her own Bradley Wiggins on a penny farthing for her window display, complete with Yorkshire Tea boxes for the hills and needle-felt animals on bikes.

Caz had launched a window display contest in Northallerton, which the majority of businesses had entered. The public are invited to vote for the best display in exchange for a donation to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and stand to win a voucher to spend at a store in the town.

She said: “Everyone has really got behind the contest; it’s really lifted the town during the cold, wintry weather and cheered everybody up. Everything looks bright and cheerful. We want to make the best that we can of the tour coming through the town.”

There is also a sportive for keen amateur cyclists to try out some of the Tour de Yorkshire route.

Tomorrow (Saturday, April 30) will see male and female cyclists ride the same route for the first time, setting off from Otley in West Yorkshire to Doncaster in South Yorkshire on a 136km route. Olympic cyclist Lizzie Armitstead will be taking part in the ride, which begins in her home town.

Sunday will see the race pay tribute to Captain Cook, travelling through towns and villages where the explorer once lived. It begins in Middlesbrough and travels through Great Ayton, Stokesley, Northallerton, Thirsk and Helmsley, before passing through the North York Moors to Whitby, with a finish in Scarborough.