Thursday, July 19, 2018

Wine and Food of the Tour de France 2018: Stage 12: Bourg-Saint-Maurice Les Arcs to Alpe d'Huez

Where are we?
Bourg-Saint-Maurice Les Arcs: Ski time. The resort's website tells me that:
At the gates of the Mont Blanc Massif and at the foot of prestigious Alpine passes (Iseran, Petit Saint Bernard, Roselend), Bourg Saint Maurice is a lovely mountain town. Its location at the edge of the Vanoise National Park makes it a summer destination that is much sought after by enthusiasts not only of the mountains but also of white water sports thanks to its international white water sports centre.
A large number of hiking paths, a tradition of cultural events, hidden Baroque art treasures and local festivals all add to its charm. Bourg-Saint-Maurice offers a blend of tourism and tradition and is an open invitation to walkers to explore its rural heritage and historic neighbourhoods by means of its enjoyable pedestrian circuits!
Apples:
In the Upper Tarentaise, fruit tree growing is an ancient activity: it occupies an important place in traditional agriculture, even though this is mainly pastoral.
References can be found in local 18th Century documents where apple varieties such as « Calville » and « Reinette » are mentioned.
In the mappe sarde of 1730 (the land registry of the period), a number of impressive orchards reach up to an altitude of 1250 metres.
In 1837, a bet between the Duke of Savoie and the Duke of Genoa highlighted the tarine apple: it involved finding the finest fruit in their respective Duchies and the « Reinette Franche » apple from Villette in Tarentaise won over the orange entered by the Duke of Genoa !
At the beginning of the 1930’s, the Tarentaise was the principal fruit growing region in Savoie (2/3 of cider apples and pears, ½ of eating apples).
Until the middle of the 20th Century, the Tarentaise was a major fruit growing region courtesy of the meadow orchards which can still be seen on the landscape today.
These traditional orchards, which united man, beast, grass and fruit in a great cooperative effort , have now been abandoned due to the specialisation in agriculture and are under threat today from the aging population and urbanisation in the valley.
However, they carry a remarkable historic, cultural, environmental and genetic heritage and since the 1980’s have been the object of various conservation and improvement activities.

LeTour specialties: Crozets (Savoie pasta), cheese (Beaufort), farçon (bread soaked in milk, with raisins and saffron), bugnes (doughnuts)   

Alpe d'Huez:
LeTour specialties: Caillette (meat pâté), gratin dauphinois, ganfles (grated potatoes), oreilles d’âne (spinach-stuffed crepes), Villard-Reculas goat’s cheese, chartreuse, génépi (liqueur)





The stage: Our last day in the Alps and time for the most famous climb in the race. The riders will climb 5010 meters today. Yikes. Don't forget to check out Will's mountains preview on PodiumCafe.
Not starting: Rigoberto Uran, suffering with his injuries and the sprinters who finished outside the time cut yesterday: Kittel, Renshaw, and Cavendish. 



 
Speaking of that break, it was taking a long time to form. As they approached the madeleine, the sprinters were already falling off the back, while up front, there was still not a clear break.


 
That group: Krusijwijk, Valverde, Zakarin, Nieve, Pauwels, Latour, Barvguil, Majka, Mollema, Calmejane, van Garderen, Moinard, Alaphilippe, Gorka Izagirre, Rolland, Bouet, Gesink, Gaudu, Martinez, Ten Dam, Amador, Edet, Sicard, Gesbert, Hansen, Navarro, Mühlberger, and Pöstlberger. Not surprisngly, that group would not all stay together.
With 125 to ride, the gap to the break remained under two minutes as the Sky led peloton did not want to give Krusijwijk much rope, as he is only 2:40 back on gc. Per LeTour's ticker, he was excited for the day: Breakaway rider Steven Kruijswijk told letour.fr: “It's a new day. It was a hard stage yesterday. It's three days of climbing in a row. I feel good. I have to see how my competitors are doing but so far so good. Hopefully I'll get another motivation from riding past Dutch Corner, it's nice to ride l'Alpe d'Huez. For the peloton it's special. Sky have quite a strong team but everybody can have a bad day and if fatigue is going through them, if we see a weakness, we'll try to exploit it. My dream? Hopefully to win solo with a lot of time behind me.”
At the top of the Madeleine a fight for the KOM points between Barguil and Alaphilippe. Alaphilippe, riding the polka dots again today, took the maximum points.
On the descent, Alaphilippe and Muhlberger take off fast enough to lose the moto-bike, which leads to a high speed "chase" of sorts which shows us exactly how fast these guys are really going downhill. Needless to say, you may not want to try that at home., especially the bunny hops over the speed bumps.
Abandonment Tony Gallopin, who had been far off the back all day.
Meanwhile, Alaphilippe has slowed enough to hand out a coke can to the moto driver.



 
Ninety five kilometers to go and the gap to the break was around 3:30.





Reaching them first: Rolland. He had about a 25 second gap up the lacets.
With about 75 kilometers to go there had been some regrouping and the race was led by Martinez, Rolland, Barguil, G. Izagirre, Nieve, Amador, Valverde, Majka, Zakarin, Kruijswijk, and Gesink. They had about a minute over the chasing group and 4:30 over the main peloton.
Another abandonment: Groenewegen. The contenders for the Champs stage are dropping like flies. Apparently Greipel was already 15 minutes behind on the stage. My main hope for him today is that he drinks a beer while climbing in honor of Adam Hansen. Per the ticker: The judges and the organisation have decided to extend the time cut by 2%, so maybe his group had hope.

Jumping from the breakaway group: Kruijswijk. With 72 kilometers to go he had a 23 second gap. With 60 kilometers to go he had 5:59 over the peloton and 2:22 over the nearest chasers
Behind, bad news for Greipel fans: DNF Greipel, Sieberg and Zabel. Get that man a beer! Next out, Gaviria. This is a bit of and then there were none for the sprinters.



Still a long way to go:



Behind, there were only 17 riders left in the yellow jersey group.

With 25 kilometers to go, Kruijswijk was 5'30'' before the peloton led by Sky. The ascent to l'Alpe d'Huez is 13.8 kilometers. With 20 kilometers to go, Barguil, Majka and Nieve were reeled in by the peloton. There was no one in between Kruijswijk and the pack.with a gap of 4:50.
Could he hold on? Good to remember that Chris Froome likes to win "trophy" stages.
Yikes. The peloton behind him was shrinking very, very quickly. Nibali! Nice to see him attacking from that group. He didn't get anywhere, but it was a moment of excitement.
Next to go Quintana. They would catch him as Fuglsang struggled at the back.
Nine left in the group: Thomas, Froome, Bernal, Nibali, Quintana, Dumoulin, Roglic, Landa, and Bardet.  Catching back on was Fuglsang.
Next up: Landa followed by Bardet, who would pass him. The bunch would not chase.
Yikes, Quintana dropped from the group. Also, yikes, a fan reached out and shoved Froome. Lots of booing for him as well.
Six kilometers to go and Kruijswijk had a lead of 1:30 over Bardet and 1:40 over the yellow jersey group. 
Five kilometers to go and Bernal finally pulled off. Thomas to the front.
Froome attack and Nibali crash. Froome flew past Kruijswijk. Catching him Dumoulin, Thomas, and Bardet, as he see Nibali back on his bike. Catching thre four at the front, Landa. Wow do they look exhausted.


 
Bardet, again, followed by Froome.
Next Dumoulin followed by Thomas.
Back on, Landa. Nibali and Roglic almost there.
Wow. Winning in yellow: Geraint Thomas.


Nibali update: at the hospital waiting for info on a suspected fractured vertebra.
 
Stage:



 
GC:
Rank Rider Rider No. Team Times Gap

1 GERAINT THOMAS 8 TEAM SKY 49h 24' 43'' -

2 CHRIS FROOME 1 TEAM SKY 49h 26' 22'' + 00h 01' 39''

3 TOM DUMOULIN 32 TEAM SUNWEB 49h 26' 33'' + 00h 01' 50''

4 VINCENZO NIBALI 51 BAHRAIN - MERIDA 49h 27' 20'' + 00h 02' 37''

5 PRIMOŽ ROGLIC 166 TEAM LOTTO NL - JUMBO 49h 27' 29'' + 00h 02' 46''

6 ROMAIN BARDET 21 AG2R LA MONDIALE 49h 27' 50'' + 00h 03' 07''

7 MIKEL LANDA MEANA 75 MOVISTAR TEAM 49h 27' 56'' + 00h 03' 13''

8 STEVEN KRUIJSWIJK 161 TEAM LOTTO NL - JUMBO 49h 28' 26'' + 00h 03' 43''

9 NAIRO QUINTANA 71 MOVISTAR TEAM 49h 28' 56'' + 00h 04' 13''

10 DANIEL MARTIN 91 UAE TEAM EMIRATES 49h 29' 54'' + 00h 05' 11''




Wine: Marie et Vincent Tricot Trois Bonhommes Rouge
From CopakeWineWorks

 From the importer: Born in Anjou, Vincent left the Loire and attended Oenology School in Beaujolais in the early 1990’s. After graduating he stayed in the region and apprenticed in Brouilly from winemaker Patrick Coton. Around this time he met Marcel Lapierre and several other winemakers who were beginning to attract attention to their non-interventionist style of winemaking.  Vincent was moved by their wines and quickly decided that this was the path for him.
In 2002, after travelling the world, he moved with his wife and their 2 daughters to the village of Orcet in Auvergne. They purchased  4.5 ha of organic vines and planted an additional  6 ha.  Vincent had learned that the region had one of the largest concentrations of pre-phylloxera vines in France and was eager for such a rare opportunity to work with.
In 2003 the family produced their first cuvee in “Les Marcottes” without any added sulphur and have continued that approach for all of the wines.  They Currently grow Gamay, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc and hope to plant more vines in the coming years.


 Food: Gratin Dauphinoise From Epicurious 
Makes 8 servings
Active Time 30 minutes, Total Time 2 1/4 hours
Ingredients
    • 3 pounds Yukon gold potatoes (about 6 large)
    • 1 medium leek
    • 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
    • 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
    • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
    • 1 large garlic clove, minced
    • 2 cups whole milk
    • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  1. Special Equipment
    • an adjustable blade slicer (optional); a 2 1/2- to 3-quart shallow baking dish
Preparation


    1. Preheat oven to 350°F with a rack in upper third of oven.

    1. Peel potatoes and thinly cut into 1/8 inch thick slices, using slicer if desired.

    1. Discard dark green part of leek and halve white and light green part lengthwise. Rinse layers under running water to remove any dirt and grit and pat dry. Thinly slice crosswise.

    1. Stir together white pepper and nutmeg with 1 3/4 teaspoons salt in a small bowl. Melt butter in a small heavy saucepan over medium-low heat and cook leek and garlic, stirring frequently, until softened, 3 to 5 minutes.

    1. Spread leek and butter mixture evenly in bottom of baking dish. Arrange one quarter of potatoes in a slightly overlapping layer over leeks, then pour 1/2 cup milk over potatoes, and sprinkle lightly with 1/2 teaspoon salt mixture. Layer potatoes with milk and salt mixture three more times in same manner.

    1. Place dish on a shallow baking pan and cover with foil. Bake until potatoes are almost tender, about 1 hour.

    1. Remove foil and pour cream over potatoes. Continue to bake, uncovered, until cream has been absorbed by potatoes and top is golden in spots, 30 to 40 minutes.
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