Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Wine and Food of Le Tour 2020 Stage 17

Where are we? Riding from Grenoble to Meribel.
From the race director: Only a great champion will be able to win at the Col de la Loze! The stage profile invites the favourites of the Tour to be audacious. They don’t yet know the road that will take them on that day to the Col de la Madeleine and have no idea of what to expect once in the resort of Méribel. They’ll still have an extra 7 irregular kilometres to climb with several passages at over 20%.

Grenoble specialties:  chestnut, gratin dauphinois, chicken with crawfish, Murson (cumin sausage) , pingouin (pastry), Chartreuse (liquor)
Merible specialties:fondues, raclettes and tartiflettes, crozets (pasta), diots (sausage), pormoniers (pork and vegetable sausage), cheese (Beaufort, Goat’s Tomme of les Allues), bluberry tart, Génépi. L’Ekrin 1* in the Michelin Guide, run by chef Laurent Azouley.



The stage: Stage 17! One that viewers, if not riders had been looking forward to since the route was announced. 
Before the day would even start, word the Barnal would not start the stage. From LeTour: “This is obviously not how I wanted my Tour de France to end, but I agree that it is the right decision for me in the circumstances", the Colombian stated. "I have the greatest respect for this race and I am already looking forward to coming back in the years ahead.”
Also of note, a not very good weather forecast for the final climb.

Our break of the day would have some familiar faces: Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Richard Carapaz (Ineos), Gorka Izagirre (Astana), Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation).
With about eighty kilometers to go, their gap was around six minutes. 
The first big climb:
In the main peloton, Quintana dropped quickly. Many would soon join him including Rolland and Pinot. Dropped from the break: Kämna. Their gap was dropping quickly.
As they climbed, the yellow jersey group was already down to 33. They were 3:35 behind the leaders.
Abandonment: Nieve.
Three kilometers still to climb and the gap to the four up front was down to two minutes.
Left in the yellow jersey group: Primoz Roglic, Tom Dumoulin, George Bennett, Robert Gesink, Sepp Kuss, Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Mikel Landa, Pello Bilbao, Damiano Caruso, Wout Poels (Bahrain-McLaren), Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), Rigoberto Urán, Hugh Carthy (EF Education First), Warren Barguil (Arkéa-Samsic), Enric Mas, Alejandro Valverde, Nelson Oliveira, Carlos Verona (Movistar Team), Richie Porte, Kenny Elissonde (Trek-Segafredo), Tadej Pogačar, David de la Cruz, Jan Polanc (UAE Team Emirates), Miguel Ángel López, Omar Fraile (Astana Pro Team), Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), and Guillaume Martin (Cofidis).
At the top of the climb, the gap was down to 1:15 and moving into the virtual kom lead was Pogacar.
On the downhill, Martin dropped from the lead group, as we got to enjoy Alaphilippe descending.
At the bottom of the descent, with 35 kilometers go to, their gap was back over 2:30. 
Up ahead,  the third highest finish location of a Tour de France stage after the Galibier (2645m) in 2011 (winner: Andy Schleck) and the Granon (2413m) in 1986 (winner: Eduardo Chozas).
Twenty five kilometers to go and the gap was 2:15. Twenty kilometers to go and it was under two minutes. Fifteen kilometers to go and 1:45. 
Dropping from the front, Alaphilippe. He would be quickly caught by the yellow jersey group. There were about twenty riders left in that group. 
Nine kilometers to go and Carapaz was solo out front with only about twenty seconds.
Not what he wanted but nice anyway as Le Tour announced that : Julian Alaphilippe was the most aggressive rider of the day.
Five kilometers to go and Carapaz had pushed his lead to 45 seconds. Landa and Uran dropped from the yellow jersey group. That group has gotten very small, very fast. Five would catch Carapaz: Porte, Lopez, Roglic, Kuss and Pogacar.
Jumping from the group, Lopez and Kuss. Next out Roglic and Pogacar through the surprisingly large crowds. Pogacar visibly struggling with the gradient and the crowds but he would close in to Roglic. 
Ahead, Lopez would hold on for the stage win.

And the GC:


The wine: Dominique Lucas 2012 Terroir du Lman
Shopping from my wine rack again. From Selection Massale:  Lucas is on Lake Leman, right across from Switzerland, on a gentle slope facing the lake, in the small village of Marcorens.
Because he is within the Crepy AOC, he wanted to focus on Chasselas, the traditional grape grown there, even though he decided from day one not to be part of the AOC that he thinks produces mostly mediocre wines.

Lucas hails from a family of vignerons based in Burgundy and he went to school to study the family trade, and never had any other projects in life other than making wine. One thing he didn't want to do though, was to work in Burgundy so he found some hectares in Haute-Savoie, on that beautiful slope (although now he makes a few cuvees from his family’s holdings in Burgundy as well).
Being very curious about biodynamics, and vinification in general, he quickly meet one of the very few other serious winemaker in the region Dominique Belluard.
The two start experimenting with different vessels for vinifications, and the both of them fell in love with the results that cement eggs give them. While Belluard manages the balance of freshness and texture in his wine by blending stainless steel and concrete egg vinification, Lucas works mostly with the ovoids, some old wood, and a variety of amphorae.
Today's wine is his Chasselas from a parcel he planted on "Moraine Glaciaire" soil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moraine) above the lake that gets plenty of cool nights.

The food: Food: Beaufort Cheese
Fromages.com tells me that: Beaufort has been celebrated since the Roman era. It takes about 500 litres (130 gallons) of milk to make a 40-45 kg  wheel of Beaufort. The cheese is made from the milk given by the mahogany-coloured Beaufort cows, called the Tarines or Tarentaises. This ancient mountain breed originally came from the Indo-Asian continent. Beaufort cheeses come in three versions, Beaufort, Beaufort d'été (summer Beaufort),and Beaufort d'Alpage which is made in the mountain chalets and is the most tasty. Ripening takes at least four months in humid (92%) cellars with the temperature below 15° . The cheeses are constantly wiped and rubbed with brine. Young cheeses have a mild fruity, sweet taste then the taste become stronger and complex. The pate of the winter cheese is white, whereas the summer cheeses are a pale yellow, due to the cows munching on the alpine flowers.




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