10 July 2007

Stage Two: Dunkerque > Gand

A spectacular crash 2.5 km from the finish could not keep Quick-Step's Gert Steegmans and his famous sprinter teammate, Tom Boonen, from taking first and second place in stage 2.

Gert Steegmans gives the victory salute!


from Velonews.com, who got it from AFP

The crash occurred when a rider from the Milram team swerved, clinked wheels, and knocked down other riders. One of the riders was Fabian Cancellara, our current wearer of the Maillot Jaune. George Hincapie and Tomas Vaitkus of Discovery, and sprinter Thor Hushovd also went down. The riders were receiving medical checks but I am not sure if any have to drop out at this time. Meg's cheri, Cadel Evans, is fine!

The day's stage ended in Ghent, Belgium, a gorgeous city with many local fans happy that two of their own finished first.

So how do things stand after Stage 2?

Yellow Jersey: Fabian Cancellara (CSC)
Green Jersey: Tom Boonen (Quickstep)
Polka Dot Jersey: David Millar (Saunier-Duval Prodir)
White Jersey: Vladimir Gusev (Discovery)

Comment allez-vous? Hopefully no one here has had a spectacular crash with their project!

In the Green Jersey group, we have everything from the tortoise to the hare. Cindy2paw is knitting in leaps and bounds, and has knitted 200g of her project - a pace which would have her finish in 8 days! Ozknitter has finished her first sock of a pair (guess she's channeling Robbie) and is well into the second sock:
Ann is knitting during most of her waking hours on Mermaid and is nearly done with a sleeve, while Auntie Jimbo has had to restart her Clementine shawl, due to its similarity to an 'occupied jock strap'! (Probably best to click the link to see what I am talking about.)

The Knitty Professor is still waiting for the steroids toy kick in but has managed to surmount one hurdle - a mistake in the pattern - on her way to market bag victory.

In other sprinting sock knitters news, Jen has had to dismiss first the Pomatamus, then the RPM, in her search for the perfect Sockapalooza socks; another Jen has had to re-do the heel on her Anniversary Socks with her own gorgeous cabled concoction, while Meredith has decided to ditch her original project choice and go with Coupling from Knitty instead. Bonne chance!

In the Polkadot jersey group, there has been all sorts action. Christina has changed lace projects and has gone on a bike ride and shares some photos of her lovely North Wales landscape with us. Pamela has bagged the market bag idea and decided to knit French Girl's Fifi instead - tres jolie! Mary Heather received her yarn from ebay but it was not the colour she was expecting - but she will proceed, undaunted. Cecile was a bit chagrined to find out that her project required not only 21 rows of rib to start with, but also 3 and 4 strands to be carried per row!

Foreverknit asks whether her lace, which currently looks like a piece of thread, will actually look like lace in the end? Chelsea tried to rip out the first three rows of her Kidsilk Haze Birch but discovered it was better to cut her losses as well as the yarn and just start over. Although Vivian still can't find her project (it's definitely NOT in the freezer) she's working on some jaywlakers for now, and posting nudie Lance Armstrong photos in the meantime!!! Donni has given us the full run-down on her sock team, which has all bases covered; while Tom-Boonen-mad Cindy has made great progress on Fawne and has highlighted some of the fine cultural offerings of Belgium in her latest post. Blogless Heidi has made her goal of knitting up to the armhole shaping on her tank top but is still questioning the title of the book the pattern is from (One Skein: 30 Quick Projects to Knit and Crochet): not only does the project require well over one skein, it is not exactly quick to knit!

KnitnLit is showing a remarkable come-from-behind recovery on the Mystery Stole, despite the kitchen renovations! And Lauren has finished well on her way with her self-designed socks for her dad:
The white jerseys have been quiet but the Yellow jerseys are clamouring! Chris has had to start her Sockamania socks about 5 times, but has now gotten about half way through a foot. Devorah has had to rip out about 17 inches of knitting and re-do it, but don't worry, she's taking heart from the riders recovering from the horrible crash in the peloton in Stage 1 and has recovered her former position. Romelda has also crashed and burned with her project, but is taking inspiration from the riders limping across the finish line in today's stage, cradling broken arms, and will tackle that dog cape again! Janet is still on-target for adding one inch per day to her circular blanket, but ponders how rough the going will be in the mountain stages later on in the tour? (There are more stitchs per row the larger her blanket gets!)

Thursday has cast on for her first ever sock, flung the magic loop method out the window, and is proceeding nicely on dpns. Kristen is several tiers into her gorgeous Lady Eleanor Stole. Inspired by Robbie McEwan's win in Stage 1 (how could you not be!) Sarah has chosen an amazing pattern from Bergere de France - it will be fascinating to see these projects unfolding from my armchair!

Several KAL'ers have had the pleasure to see the sights in London and Canterbury first hand - check out Joy, Angie, and Mrs Pao for eyewitness accounts!

Now that the Tour has reached the Continent, we look forward to bringing you some culinary highlights to offset all the calories we've been burning while watching the Tour!

A bientot!

18 comments:

Phoebe said...

Glad that all the riders seem to be relatively okay. I watched on replay at it was scary. And the KALers are knitting up some fantastic projects! Keep up the great work all!

Ang said...

I missed all the events yesterday due to Monday being a pretty busy day for me. Glad to hear all the riders are well and I hope to catch up today.

Keep knitting girls!

Chris said...

Your reports are so much fun!

The A.D.D. Knitter said...

That crash was terrifying but I suppose it's all in a day's work for them, right?

Cool projects!!

Anonymous said...

Can you tell us a bit more about how the points are awarded?

mrspao said...

That crash was pretty scary looking. The weather conditions probably had quite a lot to do with it though.

Mary Heather said...

Your updates are so funny and entertaining!

Kate said...

See, that's why I'm not a a really serious cyclist. My bike gets me to work and back, and to some other places when I need it, and that's it for me. When bare skin goes against asphalt, the asphalt will always win.

I'm sending out good thoughts to the KALers and cyclists alike! (go Robbie!)

Anonymous said...

same here, kate. a bicycle is a means of transportation for most of us here in the Netherlands. taking the kids to school, doing grocery shopping, getting to work is all done on two wheels.

Cecile said...

To offset the colories burned. lol. Yeah right!

Great recap!

Anonymous said...

The visitors to my blog are now commenting in Franglais!

... et elles sont blaming moi pour leurs avoirdupoids dans le tummy at les derrieres departements, parce que je les vends beaucoup de laine!!!

Apologies to anyone who actually IS French :o)

belaybunny said...

yes, it was a scary crash!! Apparantly one of the riders had to have his thumb operated on as he'd got 5 breaks :( And I'm afraid I did crash, which is why I switched lace projects ;)

stage 3 was good again, great finish, but I won't say anything in case anyone overseas not seen it yet!!!

Unknown said...

My husband used to bicycle race--we've both spent far too much time trying to clean his road rash with a toothbrush and soap. The discomfort didn't bother him too much; he was more concerned with the damage his bike had sustained.

I missed the race start in London, due to a previously scheduled camping trip, so that puts me way off the back knitting-wise. You are all doing some great projects, and I don't want to be left too far behind.

Auntly H said...

Now that I'm conscious (and knitting) again, I'm thinking it's going to be impossible to return to work next week. I want to stay home and watch Le Tour!

Nikki said...

What a nice update! Some of us are zipping right along! some of us ... cough me cough... are slogging along BUT I'm believing slow and steady will maybe not win me the race but at least get me up this mountain!

5elementknitr said...

Everyone's doing so well! I have a tiny toe done! 14 more rows for a real toe!

heather t said...

I found out today that no one signed up for my class. :( Probaby because I never took the sample in for people to look at. Oh well. On the good side, this means I will be posting the pattern on my blog, hopefully some time this week.

Anonymous said...

Janet in the Yellow Jersey group is beginning to wonder if her target of one inch per day of the Tour is unrealistic.