07 July 2007

Les maillots, parte III

If you are going for the maillot blanc, you are competing to be the best young (or in our case, "new") rider in the Tour. The winner of the white jersey will have finished the fastest of all the riders at or under the age of 25, as of January 1. Last year's winner was Damiano Cunego (see him under our Polka Dot Jersey post).

If you are new to knitting, cycling, or watching the Tour, you'll be inspired by how fast these young riders are, and hopefully complete your chosen project by the end of the Tour!

from: www.fmciclismo.com

Name: Alberto Contador
Home: Spain
Team: Discovery Channel
His website: http://www.albertocontador.es/

Formerly with the Astana-Wurth team, Alberto joined Discovery Channel in 2007. He won Paris-Nice, an early spring stage race, and also Vuelta a Castilla y León, so is on track for this year's White Jersey!

from: www.cyclingpost.com

Name: Thomas Dekker (not to be confused with the late actor or poet)
Home: Netherlands
Team: Rabobank
His site: http://www.thomasdekker.com/ (I don't see an English version; Google will translate).

Thomas is a talented time trialist and also a strong climber. This will be his debut in the Tour. (Some sites say he will be there, others no. The latest article that I could find says yes).

from: www.salzburg-2006.com

Name: Bernhard Kohl
Home: Germany
Team: Gerolsteiner (formerly T-Mobile)
His site: http://www.bernhardkohl.at/

He is considered a talented climber. From wiki:
His biggest career achievements include becoming the Austrian national road race champion and finishing third place overall in the Dauphiné Libéré. And look at that smile!

Of course, Parte IV will bring us the category everyone will be watching: le maillot jaune!

And a reminder: It is not too late to join the KAL! Entries are open until 3pm, London time, on 7th July 2007 - that's when the official Tour will begin...Can you stand the excitement! Instructions for joining are given here. We're hoping to get cent participants!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi !
I am French and I will be in Germany during the Tour ; I love your idea for this KAL... Il would like to know if I am allowed to participate (for me it is also a good mean to improve my English ;-)).
Béa

Unknown said...

hi,
Thomas Dekker will be there! And for all the Dutch people: You can follow the Tour on Nederland 1.

Elaine said...

I will be in London for the beginning, but then I'll be in Prague for a few days. In case I need a yarn fix, anyone know any great yarn stores in Prague that I NEED to visit? I'm also open to suggestions in London (in case I finish all I'm bringing while standing and cheering along the route)

belaybunny said...

I'm really looking forward to this. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to dye my lace yarn red, white and blue ready for my first laceweight project. I had to go in polka dot section, as I love rock climbing!!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for all the details - I wouldn't know who these young'uns were otherwise.

Ang said...

this is so exciting, I've been looking for instructions for 2 socks on 2 circulars for most of the evening...

Dotty said...

I wish everyone good luck at the start line tomorrow. Sadly, my yarn has not arrived today so I will not be joining you as a green jersey knitter. sniff sniff

Kate said...

I almost went for the maillot blanc, but I decided to go jaune at the last minute.

Nikki said...

I can't believe we're all a go tomorrow! I've posted pictures of my stalled out sweater at it's "stalled" stage on my blog. Hopefully by 29 July it'll at least be all knitted if not sewn together!

knitseashore said...

Dotty -- surely you've heard of coming from behind, haven't you??!! You can absolutely join us even if you have a late start. :)

Sarah said...

It'll be interesting to see how the young ones do, they certainly have a lot of experience already with other races.

Dotty said...

Oh - I'll still participate. As soon as the yarn arrives. But instead of trying to finish all 12 pairs by the last day, I'll just take it slow and knit as a yellow jersey. I originally signed up for the green team but I forgot about my week long camping trip and now that my start is delayed, there's no hope of knitting all 24 socks before the end.