Saturday, July 21, 2018

Wine and Food of the Tour de France 2018 Stage 14: Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux to Mende

Where are we?
Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux: The tourist website tells me that:  Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux is a town in the Drôme next to Suze-la-Rousse and Pierrelatte. Belonging to the Rhône Alpes region, it is situated on the left bank of the Rhône River. The main economic activity there is linked to the Tricastin nuclear power plant and a majority of the town's 9241 inhabitants work there.
Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux enjoys a privileged environment and geographic situation.You absolutely must visit the House of the Truffle and the Tricastin as well as the Tricastin Archaeological Museum.
Amongst the events and festivities not to be missed are the Musicales en Tricastin music festival, the farmers' market that takes place on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of each month and the truffle market open from mid-December to mid-March where, in addition to buying the most beautiful truffles, you can enjoy truffle ravioli accompanied by the region's famous wines." 
LeTour specialties: Black Tricastin truffle, olives and olive oil, omelette with truffles, picodon (goat’s milk cheese), Grignan-les-Adhémar AOC wine

Mende: The official French travel site tells me that:  Situated between le Puy en Velay and Conques, the sacred heritage of Mende offers visitors important contemporary pilgrims sites, architecture, history, heritage and traditions that beg to be shared. Converted to Christianity very early on, Mende owes its rapid expansion to the pilgrimage tradition that developed around the place where Saint Privat was martyred. It then became the seat of the bishops of Gévaudan, who from the 12th century held a great deal of temporal power. In the 14th century, on the initiative of Pope Urban V, the current cathedral was built on the tomb of Saint Privat. From Saint Privat to Urban V, including a whole population whose lives were structured by ancient cultural practices, and in particular the white penitents who were the most striking example of these traditions, a number of men left their holy mark on the city. Oratories, crosses and black Madonnas line the streets of the town.
LeTour specialties: croquantes de mende (almond biscuits), aligot (cheese blended mashed potato), cheese, honey



 
The stage:  Early echelcon excitement on Belgium's national day!


They would come back together, but a scary moment for a few riders.
The next break of the day: Calmejane, Alaphilippe, Fraile, DeGendt, Cousin,  and Amador. However, they would be caught by a very large chasing group leaving 32 riders up the road. With 160 kilometers to go, they had over three minutes on the main peloton. 
The complete group: Dani Martinez and Pierre Rolland (EF), Simon Geschke (Sunweb), Gorka Izagirre and Kristjian Koren (Bahrain-Merida), Michael Hepburn and Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott), Andrey Amador (Movistar), Damiano Caruso, Stefan Küng and Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), Julian Alaphilippe, Philippe Gilbert and Yves Lampaert (Quick Step), Peter Sagan and Maciej Bodnar (Bora-Hansgrohe), Omar Fraile (Astana), Tom-Jelte Slagter and Julien Vermote (Dimension Data), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Lilian Calmejane, Jérôme Cousin, Thomas Boudat, Sylvain Chavanel and Damien Gaudin (Direct Energie), Michael Gogl and Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo), Christophe Laporte, Nicolas Edet, Anthony Perez and Anthony Turgis (Cofidis), Thomas Degand (Wanty-Groupe Gobert).
The highest ranked on GC is Damiano Caruso, 25th at 39:18, which means that the break is of little concern to Sky. Indeed with 135 kilometers to go, the gap had grown to five minutes.


Ninety five to go and it was a seven minute gap. We had reached the will they or won't they survive until the finish point of the stage.


The truth though was that the suspense was dropping as with under seventy kilometers to go, the gap was over nine minutes. The main question would be: when would the break split apart? The first to try was Gorka Izaguirre and he would get a small gap.
Abandonment: Patrick Bevin.


With forty kilometers to go Stuyven, Izagirre and Slagter had  a 1:15 lead over Daniel Martínez, Pierre Rolland (EF Education First), Simon Geschke (Team Sunweb), Daryl Impey (Mitchelton - Scott), Andrey Amador (Movistar Team), Damiano Caruso, Stefan Küng, Greg van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team), Julian Alaphilippe, Philippe Gilbert, Yves Lampaert (Quick-Step Floors), Peter Sagan (Bora - Hansgrohe), Omar Fraile (Astana Pro Team), Thomas de Gendt (Lotto - Soudal), Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie), Nicolas Edet, Anthony Pérez (Cofidis), Thomas Degand (Wanty - Groupe Gobert). The peloton was fifteen minutes behind.
And then it was time for the official groups all over the road portion of the stage.
With 30 kilometers to go, Stuyven was :40 ahead of Izagirre and Slagter and 1:15 ahead of the Alaphilippe group.


Twelve kilometers to go and he had 1:48. With the climb ahead, his possible win was still in doubt.


Three kilometers to go and Fraile was closing in on Stuyven. Could he make the catch? Finally, the expected attack from Alaphilippe.
Ahead, Fraile caught and passed Stuyven.


And Fraile would hold on.


 
Now the long wait for the gc group.

Stage:

 
That gc group had grown small, with under thirty riders left. Dumoulin looked far from strong at the back of the group, but he was holding on, barely. Just as he looked to truly being suffering, he would pull to the front, covered quickly by Thomas, Quintana, and Froome. Dropping from them Quintana as they chased Roglic at the front. The big loser on the day: Dan Martin, with an ill timed puncture.

GC:


 

The wine: Domaine Romaneaux-Destezet (Herve Souhaut) Souteronne 2016
From CopakeWineWorks
Rhone Gamay and very much a treat!

From the importer: Hervé Souhaut created Domaine Romaneaux-Destezet in 1993. Hervé works 5-hectares of old and ancient vines—between 50 to 100 years old. He is very fortunate to own two vineyards in the Rhône Valley just opposite the storied hills of Hermitage in Saint Joseph. This region is widely recognized as being one of the finest areas for wine production on the planet; thanks in part to its elevation, ancient vineyard sites and the southeastern and southern exposures. The domaine is located further into the hills of the Northern Ardeche in the tiny town of Arlebosc, about a 30-minute drive, winding through the hills from St Joseph. The winery is underneath the 16th century “les romaneaux” fortified farm and sits in the middle of the vines that make up the Souteronne, Syrah, and white cuvées.
Hervé works entirely on whole grape bunches and semi-carbonic maceration. His philosophy is to extract a delicate balance of tannins from the grapes, to make a wine with subtlety and finesse. This stands in contrast to many of the storied wines of the Northern Rhone that are made with much more extraction of tannin, where they are designed to be practically undrinkable in their youth, as time is needed for them soften and open up. Hervé prefers to make a wine that is drinkable right away, but we must say his wines have such a fantastic level of purity and acidity, that the older bottles we have tasted have incredible potential to evolve into what we find to be one of the most spectacular natural wines in existence.




 Food: Croquantes de Mende from Marmiton, with some entertianing help from Google Translate

Ingredients

  • 4 egg (3 whole + 1 yellow)
  • 200 g of powdered sugar
  • 200 g whole almonds not pruned
  • 400 g flour
  • 2 tablespoon of orange blossom

Preparation

total time: 55 min
Preparation: 10 min
Cooking time: 45 min

  1. Step 1

    Beat the 3 eggs with the sugar .

  2. 2nd step

    Add the orange blossom, the almonds and the flour.

  3. Step 3

    Finish kneading with your hands and make 2 rolls a little flattened.

  4. Step 4

    Brush with diluted egg yolk with a little water.

  5. Step 5

    Bake in the oven at 200 ° (th.7) for 40 minutes and take out of the oven.

  6. Step 6

    While it is still soft, cut the sausages in slices about 1cm and iron in the oven for 5 minutes to dry the cakes. 
Situated between le Puy en Velay and Conques, the sacred heritage of Mende offers visitors important contemporary pilgrims sites, architecture, history, heritage and traditions that beg to be shared. Converted to Christianity very early on, Mende owes its rapid expansion to the pilgrimage tradition that developed around the place where Saint Privat was martyred. It then became the seat of the bishops of Gévaudan, who from the 12th century held a great deal of temporal power. In the 14th century, on the initiative of Pope Urban V, the current cathedral was built on the tomb of Saint Privat. From Saint Privat to Urban V, including a whole population whose lives were structured by ancient cultural practices, and in particular the white penitents who were the most striking example of these traditions, a number of men left their holy mark on the city. Oratories, crosses and black Madonnas line the streets of the town.

 Read more at: http://us.france.fr/en/discover/mende-0
Situated between le Puy en Velay and Conques, the sacred heritage of Mende offers visitors important contemporary pilgrims sites, architecture, history, heritage and traditions that beg to be shared. Converted to Christianity very early on, Mende owes its rapid expansion to the pilgrimage tradition that developed around the place where Saint Privat was martyred. It then became the seat of the bishops of Gévaudan, who from the 12th century held a great deal of temporal power. In the 14th century, on the initiative of Pope Urban V, the current cathedral was built on the tomb of Saint Privat. From Saint Privat to Urban V, including a whole population whose lives were structured by ancient cultural practices, and in particular the white penitents who were the most striking example of these traditions, a number of men left their holy mark on the city. Oratories, crosses and black Madonnas line the streets of the town.

 Read more at: http://us.france.fr/en/discover/mende-0
Situated between le Puy en Velay and Conques, the sacred heritage of Mende offers visitors important contemporary pilgrims sites, architecture, history, heritage and traditions that beg to be shared. Converted to Christianity very early on, Mende owes its rapid expansion to the pilgrimage tradition that developed around the place where Saint Privat was martyred. It then became the seat of the bishops of Gévaudan, who from the 12th century held a great deal of temporal power. In the 14th century, on the initiative of Pope Urban V, the current cathedral was built on the tomb of Saint Privat. From Saint Privat to Urban V, including a whole population whose lives were structured by ancient cultural practices, and in particular the white penitents who were the most striking example of these traditions, a number of men left their holy mark on the city. Oratories, crosses and black Madonnas line the streets of the town.

 Read more at: http://us.france.fr/en/discover/mende-0
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