Saturday 26 June 2021

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2021 Stage 1

The Cycling: Stage 1 is 197.8km and starts in Brest and ends in Landerneau.  There were 6 classified climbs on the route.  There were a few small crashes in the early stages of the race that were of little consequence before a supporter on the side of the road was so engrossed with playing to the cameras with a big sign that she failed to pay attention to or be aware of the peloton that she got in the way and the vast majority of the peloton was brought down.  Not all of the riders were able to continue with the Tour and had to pull out of the competition without completing a single stage of the race and the supporter ran off and is currently in hiding.  Julian Alaphilippe won the stage.

Team Challenge: "Welcome to stage one, everyone!  They say that half the challenge is turning up, so the rest of this should be a breeze.

Sylvain Chavanel holds the record for the greatest number of Tour de France races participated in.  He started 18 and finished 16, which is quite an achievement.

Today the cyclists have a course that is looking a little hilly with a few impressive gradients and just like that we have a seamless link in to today's challenge: Spin a gradient!"

What I planned to do and what I achieved: I'm not in a position to spin a gradient for the challenge but I've just finished combing the Welsh Hill Speckled Face fleece for my British Breeds project so my plan is to make a start on spinning the 375g of lovely hand combed top that I got from that.  I divided it into 3 equal amounts to allow 125g per skein and then halved each clump for each ply.  I am trying to remove as much of the last of the hair and kemp as I spin as well so that will reduce each one slightly and take me a little longer to spin than normal but will make for a much nicer yarn in the end.

I got the first single spun before tea time and then I sat and and spun a second single before bed time.  The plan is to ply in the morning and then get cracking on the next skein.


 

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