TdF questions

[mekira]

Hmmm, last year's tour coverage said peloton was French for "ball". Google translate says its French for "group". Now I will have to look this up in my French dictionary tonight. DH and I liked "ball", we started calling our lab's tennis balls "pelotons" when we didn't want to say the word "ball" (since she knows the word "ball", and then you're in trouble).

I'm French canadian

Peloton is a group (of riders, also a military term)

Pelote is a ball (of yarn, of thread etc)

[margo49]

There are also yellow numbers for the riders in the leading team.

Riders who are national Road Race champions wear their national jerseys (Julian Dean, Christophe Moreau, Fabian Wegmanns, Big George etc.) National TT champions wear their national jerseys in the ITT's.
And the current world champion wears the Rainbow Jersey of that.
You can also see on the sleeves stripes of past national and world champions.

[Thorn]

And, now I ask a stupid spectator question....do the towns along the route "compete" for best decoration or is this just a matter of pride and a little extra television coverage?

Today has had some cute side shows. For example, there was the group of people, dressed in yellow forming a bicycle in a field. The wheels were maypoles with yellow streamers for spokes and kids running around in the "rims". Or, the stage decorated as a television screen complete with "riders" on the screen.

Or, maybe, I've spent too much time just listening to audio.

[Katiek]

The announcers said earlier in the week that in an Australian race, the Tour Down Under, the race organizers award a prize for the best town decoration, but in the TdF, it's just for fun and civic pride.

Can someone give me a "gears for dummies" summary of the difference between the "big ring" and the "little ring" and when someone uses one instead of the other?

[margo49]

The towns (well their councils) do compete for being start and finish points. Obviously it is a boost to the local economy assuming they can provide the facilities (hotels, etc).
Most of the rest of it is just the French phenomenon of "en f^ete" = on holiday or festive. Lots of fun and games along the route. Farms spelling out riders names or "Vive le Tour" in hay bales etc. I even saw a cow with a yellow cover on it today.

[Katiek]

I even saw a cow with a yellow cover on it today.

This cow is still trying to recover from the embarassment

[margo49]

Another reason to reincarnate as an Aberdeen Angus or a Hereford or a Friesian rather than a Charolais.