LIKE many people in York, I went out on Sunday to cheer the Tour de France through the city.

I admired the good-humoured creativity of those who had decorated their streets in preparation for the event.

Le Tour is a fine example of peaceful international competition involving participants from all over the world.

There was but one jarring note: a fly-past by a Lancaster bomber accompanied by a Spitfire, both weapons of death and destruction, and relics of the last great world conflict which ended nearly 70 years ago, and which involved several countries as mutual enemies from which many participants of the Tour de France are now drawn.

I understand, though I do not share, the sentiment attached to these machines. I remember as a child accompanying an uncle to an air-show, where the sight of a passing Spitfire brought tears to his eyes.

However, in the context of the Tour de France in Yorkshire, this was inappropriate and struck the wrong chord in an otherwise perfect day.

Steve Cox, Ouse Lea, Shipton Road, York.