ARTIST and cycling fan Bill Oakey will be getting the perfect view of this year’s Tour de Yorkshire – or at least his work will be.

His striking pictures of some of the cycling world’s most iconic stars will be overlooking the route as the race speeds through Northallerton.

From April 9 to May 20 – three weeks either side of the event – his colourful portraits will hanging in the main window at Costal Framing in the town hall building.

Bill, 69, used to run his own gallery in West Burton and a shop in Leyburn and now, despite being supposedly retired, paints full time.

A self-taught painter, he has exhibited widely in the Dales and elsewhere and his first-ever painting, when he was about seven, was framed and hung at his junior school in Leicester.

“I’m a bit of a sports fan and I’ve always enjoyed watching the big cycling events,” said Bill, who now lives in Northallerton.

Mark Cavendish, Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome and Lizzie Armistead are among the cycling stars he has immortalised in acrylics. For more details visit billoakey.com