Stage 15 of the Tour de France and it is a 202.5km long flat race that starts in Rodez and ends in Carcassone.
The Map
Sights and points of interest along the route
The race starts in Rodez, an ancient city with the ruins of an ancient city fortress still strongly present in the form of ramparts. It was founded by the Celts and and later taken by the Romans who called the city Segodunum, with "Sego" meaning Strong and "dunum" meaning Hill put that together and it becomes strong hill / high hill / stronghold which is the at the heart of the Gaulish name of Rodez. The city is home to the Soulages Museum and Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Fenaille Museum and Jourery Hotel as well as House of Armagnac.
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| Rodez |
As the cyclists get on the road they pass Luc-la-Primaube, then Calmont, once renowned for its hemp cultivation (I hope that means they grew it for fibre production and not for recreational drug purposes). The ruins of the 15th century castle keep dominates the skyline. At Comps-la-Grand-Ville with its population of 620 is the Abbaye Notre-Dame de Bonnecombe, founded in 1162 by Cistercian Monks. Cassagne-Begonhes is next on the route followed by Requista, a town that holds the festival of the ewe every first Sunday of June and there is even a statue of a ewe and lamb in front of the town hall.
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| The sheep statue in Requista. Sheep are the symbol of the city. |
The pretty town of Ambialet is perched on an isthmus, formed by the river Tarn. The church of St Gilles was burnt down in 1568 and not restored until the mid 1990's. The riders approach 13th century Villefranche-d'Albigeois and 20km further along they comes to Realmont followed by the medieval village of Lautrec and owes its name to the Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa family. Nearby is the Château de Malvignol and the Windmill of La Salette, which still produces flour.
Vielmur-sur-Agout is the birthplace of Jean-Louis-Etienne, who skied to the north pole alone in 1986. He is currently 75 years old. At 128km along the route is Puylaurens with 13th century Notre-Dame-du-lac Church and at 142km is the largest bastide in France, Revel. A bastide is a medieval village or town laid out to a definite geometric plan. There is a wood and marquetry museum with a Xylotheque that lists the characteristics of hundred of species and there are workshops that can be attended that offer an introduction into the craft. On a personal note, wood is probably the other major natural material, besides wool, that I understand and appreciate the difference of different types of wood in terms of the strength, the grain, the colour, the texture and I would totally get it if someone created a marquetry piece of furniture, a table for instance, using different wood types with each "block" having the name of the wood pyrographed in one corner, maple, sycamore, oak, beech, pine, etc etc
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| Revel |
Saissac is at the foothills of the Montagne Noire and the castle ruins are quite imposing. The race ends in Carcassone, which from the photograph looks very much like a sprawling fairytale castle. It is in fact a medieval oppidum, a fortified city protected by two concentric enclosures. It has 52 towers and and 3km of ramparts. It has undergone a lot of reconstruction and preservation to make it look how it looks today. The aerial view is absolutely spectacular. Wow, just wow!
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| Carcassone |
There is a cinema inside the medieval part of the city, the cinema was built in 1908. In this area cloth-making was the trade in the 17th century and in the 19th century wine was the big trade item and due to the wealth there are several mansions with fabulous architecture.
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| Carcassone, the medieval old town inside the ramparts with newer buildings outside. |
Who Won the Stage and Who Won What Jersey
The Stage winner is Jasper Philipsen for Alpecin-Deceuninck/BEL.
The Yellow Jersey won by Jonas Vingegaard for Jumbo-Visma
The Green Jersey won by Wout van Aert for Jumbo-Visma.
The Polka Dot Jersey won by Simon Geschke for Cofidis/FRA.
The White Jersey won by Tadej Pogacar for UAE Team Emirates.
Combatif Award won by Nils Politt for Bora-Hansgrohe/GER
Leading team: Ineos-Grenadiers
The Challenge: Welcome to Rodez, the starting point for today's flat stage. The older buildings are made from both grey and pink sandstone giving it a very warm and welcoming feel and with the cathedral itself a towering example of the pink stone. In July temperatures averages 24°C with an average of 10 hours of sunshine!.
We're going pink! Go bright, go pastel or go blended! (Alternatively, if you're not a fan of pink, how about using some greys and tonal shade to get a stone effect?)
Suggested Fibre: If you're in team EVERYTHING IS PINK, try Whisper. Alternatively, a nice and easy option is Granite, or even Sandstone.
What I did
Having already being aware that I would need something pink or grey I had had a bit of time to think about this one and had already decided to spin the 50g or thereabouts of pink/grey/white blend "Sugar & Spice" which was the free gift in the Advent Calendar. I had a rummage through my "ingredients cupboard", where I keep all the smaller amounts of fibre from botany waste bags, mixed bags, sample amounts and such like and I had thought I had got some pale pink fibre but I hadn't so I just picked out two different grey fibres which together totalled around 50g, one is definitely Shetland and the other I think might be Merino.
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| Sugar & Spice, the unknown and Shetland |
I pre-drafted the two grey fibres together as best as I could so that they kind of blended as I spun and that made one single and the Sugar & Spice spun up as the second single.
I plied them together to create a double-knit weight yarn that is 84g/128m which in terms of the TdF length calculations is 384m - 2 singles plus the plied length = 3 x finished yarn length. The pink is very subtle but it is there, although it is very difficult to see in the photos of the finished yarn.
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