THE crisis kicked off a week ago. "OK, I give in," I posted on Facebook. "Where does one buy yellow bunting round here?"

Responses came in thick and fast: yellow T-shirts were proffered as material (I don’t sew); "Cut up yellow bedsheets" (ditto); "Get crafty" (I don’t do crafts either); "Try local shops" (all rumoured to be sold out) and the best one, "Lots of white knickers and some yellow dye", which the eco-warrior in me gave serious consideration for 30 seconds before rejecting on reputational grounds.

Meanwhile, just about every house on our street had been festooned in all manner of Tour-de-Franceyness, from painted walls and spotty gates to yarn-bombed trees and cycle-themed window displays. And that’s as well as a wide variety of tasteful and hand-crafted bunting. People are very artistic around here. Apart from me.

Fortunately, both my neighbours also came late to the need for bunting – the race is going past our front doors, so we’ve got to keep the side up – and after a tri-party agreement, a lucky find in Pextons and last-minute online ordering, we now have enough bunting for our own mini-gala. Plus I recklessly splashed out on three potted sunflowers.

It gets to you like that, the Tour de France. It’s contagious. Yellow fever, of a creative kind, has spread throughout Yorkshire and York too, naturellement. Bishopthorpe Road shopping parade – renamed Bishy Rue until Sunday – looks stunning and absolutely deserved to win best dressed city/community in the Welcome to Yorkshire/Yorkshire Post Tour de France competition.

However, in terms of inventiveness, cycling-mad Harrogate farmer Keith Chapman, who painted his sheep in Tour de France colours, gets my vote.

As a concept, it has legs (lots): Yorkshire-made yellow, green and spotty jerseys, straight from the sheep; fields of colour-co-ordinated flocks could provide a tourist attraction and would make great photos on brochures. Or am I getting carried away?

It’s just been announced that Yorkshire is to get its own, annual, world-class cycle race, beginning next May, so it’s a good time to get entrepreneurial. Kudos to Gary Verity and the Welcome to Yorkshire team for playing their hand close to their chests and timing the announcement about the new Tour of Yorkshire just as we reach Le Tour fever-pitch.

The ambition to make Yorkshire the cycling heartland of Europe is a far-sighted one and, on the basis of the reception so far, it feels like an achievable one, too.

I confess, for all my championing of cycling as a sustainable transport mode, I don’t get why people want to cycle up such steep hills. All this ‘King of the Mountains’ stuff does nothing for me – I like cycling in York precisely because it is flat.

But I do get why people want to watch these super-fit super-humans battling it out, because the challenge is epic and the race is full of drama and excitement. It’s inspirational, and that’s important.

If the knock-on effect – more people taking up cycling, whether it’s the competitive Lycra-clad stuff, weekend leisure rides or pedalling to work – is as big as it has the potential to be, then the economic impact, along with the health and sustainability benefits, mean we could be looking at a real game-changer.

One of the things I’ve loved about Le Tour coming to Yorkshire is the community spirit it has engendered at street level and the pride with which it has been embraced across the county. We’ve demonstrated it in quirky, artistic and sometimes heroic style, from woolly bikes and the emblematic yellow bikes to pedalling a Grand piano up Crag Vale and a ghostly peloton of illuminated dancers and cyclists twirling in the dark in Leeds.

There’s also been the coming together of people to sing and play and share stuff and make stuff and do stuff, which is equally significant. Social capital, the intrinsic value of our social networks, is built on relationships, and communities with strong social capital are resilient communities, which is what we need in these uncertain times.

It may be less tangible to define, cost or measure, but it’s there in the fabulous community banners draped from York’s city walls and it’s there in all the street parties, events and celebrations this weekend. And it’s there in the hoisting of bunting with neighbours, too. ‘Be Part of It’ was the message. And we are.