Every July, the roads of France fill with speed, power, and anticipation. Tour de France sweeps through the Alps, countryside, and city streets as the world's best cyclists battle stage after stage to wear the famous yellow jersey, the maillot jaune, symbolizing leadership and endurance. But while the cyclists pedal through heat and rain, another race silently begins. A race that requires not bikes, but yarn, fibers, and patience. It's called Tour de Fleece.
At first glance, cycling and handspinning seem far apart. But the closer one looks, the more similarities emerge. Both are about rhythm, technique, and enduring for a long time. Both are built on community, perseverance, and a love for the process. And they actually share a common history, woven together through wool.
The Origin of the Yellow Jersey: A Knitted Symbol
The first yellow jersey was introduced in 1919, in a Europe still healing its war wounds. The Tour's organizer, Henri Desgrange, wanted to make the leader more visible. The choice fell on yellow, the same color as the sports section of the newspaper L’Auto, which sponsored the race. What's remarkable is that the first jerseys were made of wool. They were hand-knitted or machine-knitted, heavy and warm, but functional enough to withstand wind, dust, and cold during the long mountain stages.
For decades, cyclists wore wool jerseys, and although today's materials are more technical, the original feel lives on. The yellow jersey quickly became more than just a piece of clothing. It symbolizes a journey built of small steps, just like a growing pattern in knitting or every turn of the spinning wheel.
A Parallel Race: Tour de Fleece
In 2006, a small group of handspinners started their own race. While the cyclists in the Tour de France struggled in the hills, they sat at their spinning wheels and spun wool every day there was a stage. They called it Tour de Fleece, a play on words that quickly became an international movement.
Today, thousands of people worldwide participate. Some spin by themselves, others in teams. Many share their progress on Ravelry or social media. There are no judges or prize money, just personal goals and a sense of being part of something bigger. Many spin fibers they've never tried before, experimenting with color, texture, or techniques. Some plan their fiber strategy weeks in advance, just as a cycling team plans its attacks.
They spin, we spin
A phrase that has become popular in Tour de Fleece is "They spin, we spin." There's something poetic in how two such different activities still share the same core. Spinning a bobbin of wool requires the same patience as climbing kilometer after kilometer up a mountain road.
Those who spin daily during the Tour say it creates a special rhythm in the body. Just as cyclists train their legs to remember every pedal stroke, hands learn to listen to the language of the fibers. It becomes like a dance, a flow, a state of focus.
It's also a tribute to the Tour's textile roots. The first yellow jersey was, after all, made of wool, and there's something beautiful in the thought of people still spinning the same material while following the race in real-time.
A Textile Trail in the Footsteps of the Tour
In many villages that the Tour de France passes through, colorful yarn installations can now be seen. Bicycles covered in crochet. Banners in knit. Even large yellow jerseys made of small patches, assembled by local groups. It's sometimes called yarn bombing, a kind of yarn graffiti that shows that textile crafts are not only alive but celebrated.
It's as if the spinning community replies: We are here too. We are following you. And we celebrate, in our own way.
Yarn, Power, and Community
Tour de France and Tour de Fleece move in parallel through July, like two threads in the same weave. One is seen on TV and lined with cheering crowds. The other takes place in silence, in homes around the world, where yarn is transformed into thread with every spin. But both tell the same story: that endurance, passion, and community are forces that drive people forward, whether on a bicycle or at a spinning wheel.