Poor Cadel. It looks like he will finish second yet again. But I am thinking that one small consolation is that he is truly the best bike rider -- he got to second place virtually by himself, as his team was not much help in the mountains. Carlos had an entire team to pull him and Frank Schlek up! And qu'est que ce Robbie McEwen?? Christian Vande Velde, however, and Teams Garmin-Chipotle and Columbia were outstanding, considering many of the riders were new to their teams and the Tour.
Our new knitters in the KAL did and are doing an outstanding job too! I know many of you are time trialing tonight to finish your projects, if you are going for a green jersey (like Robbie, I've accepted that I'm beaten this year), so without further commentating, here is our race report:
Stefan Schumacher of Gerolsteiner again blew past Fabian Cancellara (CSC) in the time trial today, winning stage twenty handily. Third place went to Kim Kirchen of Columbia and fourth went to Christian Vande Velde of Garmin-Chipotle.
Yellow: Carlos Sastre (CSC)
Green: Oscar Freire (Rabobank)
Polka Dot: Bernard Kohl (Gerolsteiner)
White: Andy Schleck (CSC)
Team: CSC of course
Lantern Rouge: holding steady now at #145, our buddy Wim is firmly in last place. I wonder if he wins anything?!
Speaking of winning, Caffeine Fairy's French Onion Soup has won her our second intermediate sprint! Ms. Fairy, as soon as we hear from winner #1, Jane, on her choice of the yarns from Live 2 Knit, we'll be getting yarn out to you too! Felicitations!!
P.S. In the interest of providing my last cultural commentary for this Tour, one of the town of Cerilly's main assets is the Troncais forest, which provides good quality oak for making barrel staves for the best wines. It also has a lovely Romanesque church dedicated to St. Martin and built in the 11th century. The church is noted for its three storied bell tower. Saint-Amand-Montrond has become a center for printing and jewelry, along with luxury goods such as leather, fashion, and porcelain. In case you were wondering! ;)
Now let's get another update from our teams:
A very short post from Garmin-Chipotle has little knitting. Most of the team must be watching the Tour!
Bridget has finished the first of the Bon-bon Socklettes! She considers this to be quite an accomplishment, in that she seldom make so much progress so quickly, especially when not working on a single project.
Team Rabobank:
The last time trial is always so bittersweet - I can't believe the Tour is almost over. I'm sure the cyclists are ready to go home and rest, but I could keep watching them every morning for another three weeks at least!
Alli certainly put in a good performance! Her Rabobank-colored cycling jersey is 99% done:
You've got to click over to her blog and see her amazing photographs from her vacation in a little Alaskan cabin, where she finished knitting her jersey despite having to rip the yoke twice.
Bells is turning over a massive gear to finish the knitting of her cardigan. She thinks seaming it before the end of the race is out of reach, but I think she might surprise herself! And that overachiever Sandy has whipped out half a sock now that her market bag is finished:
Sarah has been saved from disaster by the kindness of a fellow knitter, who just happened to have cheese-doodle yellow Malabrigo Lace in her stash, and lives within cycling distance for a quick hand-off. Sarah's alternating a round with the old yarn and a round with the new, but you can't even tell there's a difference:
(pssst - that's her first try for a tubular bind off. Takes forever, but doesn't it look nice?)
On to Paris! This really has been, as Alli said, the best knitalong ever. Thanks to Meg and Debby and all the wonderful participants for a great July!
Team Quick Step Update
There's not a great deal I can report at the moment, not only are my fingers aching from knitting all morning, but I imagine everyone else is too as it's gone very quiet.
So I would like to take this opportunity to say "Thank You" to Meg and Debbie on behalf of Team Quick Stitch for a wonderful, educational, fun knitalong, yet again this year. You're both fantastic!
Congratulations to Shelley on winning the 2nd Intermediate Sprint for her delicious Onion Soup and she has also finished her blanket - photos yet to come - personally I'm sitting on the edge of me seat.
Shelley's Final Intermediate Sprint is there too, also Whitney's, and mine.
Time for some serious sprinting from me...keep going girls, you can do it.
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