Thursday, September 17, 2020

Wine and Food of Le Tour 2020 Stage 18


From the race director: The course of the day is made for the most enduring climbers. Indeed over 4,000m of climbing will be on the menu. In the following order, the peloton will head up to the Cormet de Roselend, then the Col des Saisies followed by Les Aravis and finally the Plateau des Glières, a key location of the French Resistance, before continuing towards La Roche-sur-Foron.

Specialties: cheese (Abondance, Reblochon, Tomme of Savoy), fondue savoyarde, tartiflette, raclette, berthoud, Rochoise beer (silver medal in 2018).



The stage: Bumpy map today. Appropriately, many riders can target the KOM jersey: 18 riders who already have a minimum of 20 KOM points can mathematically take the polka dot jersey, including escape artists Cosnefroy, Pierre Rolland, Nans Peters, Richard Carapaz, Marc Hirschi, Lennard Kämna, Jesus Herrada, Julian Alaphilippe, Quentin Pacher, Toms Skujins, Michael Gogl and Dan Martin. In the remaining three stages, stage 19 and 21 will offer 1 KOM point each at a cat. 4 climb while stage 20 features the cat. 1 Planche des belles filles. The last 5.9km of the race, from Plancher-les-Mines to the top, will be timed to determine the KOM and award 10 points to the fastest up the hill.
The early break of the day is huge, with 32 riders, including Sam Bennett, who took the win at the sprint point. As they climbed the cormet de Roselend, the group was 19. Eventually we would have five at the front: Hirschi, Carapaz, Bilbao, Edet, and Kwiatkowski. They were followed by multiple chase groups. The peloton was five minutes back with eighty six kilometers to go.
🇫🇷 @NicoEdet is dropped from the leading group, here are the 4 remaining riders:
Ils sont plus que 4 en tête de course puisque 🇫🇷 @NicoEdet vient d'être distancé :

🇨🇭 @MarcHirschi
🇪🇨 @RichardCarapazM
🇵🇱 @kwiato
🇪🇸 @PelloBilbao1990 #TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/I2RhvFZpRc
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) September 17, 2020
Carapaz would surge ahead on the downhill, followed by Hischi who would crash, but be back up riding quickly. 
After the col de Saisies, the provisional KOM standings were: 1. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), 66 2. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma), 63 3. Miguel Ángel López (Astana Pro Team), 51 4. Marc Hirschi (Team Sunweb), 48 5. Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers), 44.
🇪🇨 @RichardCarapazM is the first at the summit and takes the 10 🔴⚪ points!
🇪🇨 Richard Carapaz passe le Col des Aravis en tête et marque 10 points.🔴⚪#TDF2020 #TDFunited pic.twitter.com/FEreoGkWVL
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) September 17, 2020
2. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma), 63
3. Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers), 54
4. Marc Hirschi (Team Sunweb), 52
5. Miguel Ángel López (Astana Pro Team), 51
Next up:  
Behind, the pace picked up in the yellow jersey group with Poels and Landa on the attack. Up front, the trio became a duo as Bilbao dropped. In trouble behind, Uran in the sixth to start the day and then Yates, who was in fifth.
With thirty kilometers to go, Landa had about thirty seconds.
Left in the yellow jersey group: Primoz Roglic, Tom Dumoulin, Sepp Kuss, Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Enric Mas (Movistar Team), Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo), Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Miguel Ángel López (Astana Pro Team).
At the top of the climb, Carapaz with maximum kom points, putting him in the virtual polka dot jersey.
Gravel! It was fun to see it.
Attacks from the yellow jersey group, but Kuss and Roglic had been controlling them.
On the gravel, a front wheel puncture for Porte. There was not a neutral service car nearby and he was out of teammates, so he would continue to ride, slowly and awkwardly. Roglic, meanwhile, looked comfortable. Today's Le Tour trivia: The main historical fact about La Roche-sur-Foron, the hosting town of today's stage finish, dates back to 1885 and precisely to the day when it became the first town in Europe to install public electricity lights. On December 16, 1885, Pierre Giffard, himself a great promoter of cycling, wrote in Le Figaro how astonishing feat the small town had achieved: “This is not Paris or London or Berlin or Moscow or nothing similar. It’s a very small Savoy city, ten leagues from the Mont Blanc, it’s not an even the chief town of an arrondissement, just a canton chef-lieu called La Roche. Do you know La Roche? La Roche-sur-Foron in Haute-Savoie? No? Well, this town that I’m proud to describe as a city of lights, has just decided, the first of its kind in Europe, to light its streets, squares, monuments and houses with electricity.” Twenty public chandeliers and 600 Edison bulbs lit the houses of the little market town which was already bigger than its shade.

Twenty kilometers to go:  Carapaz and Kwiatkowski had a 1'45'' lead over Bilbao. Kuss, Roglic, Mas, Pogacar, Lopez and Landa with Richie Porte 25 seconds behind them. 
Twelve kilometers to go: Carapaz and Kwiatkowski were in the lead. Hirschi was at 3'40'', the yellow jersey group at 4'30'', Richie Porte at 4'45'', with company.
Porte would make it back with Dumoulin for company as they caught Hirschi.
As they near the finish, I wanted a Kwiatkowski win. They had enough of a lead to celebrate on the way in, finishing arm in arm.

Grabbing the remaining bonus points on the line Wout Van Aert.

The GC:

The wine: Belluard Les Alpes
From the importer, Selection MassaleAyze is only about 30 miles from Mont Blanc, but the Belluard vineyards are planted relatively lower to allow ripening.  Dom has vineyards planted from 300 to 450 meters above sea level.  Make no mistake, these are mountain wines.  But they are not planted next to ski slopes.  All are farmed biodynamically and were planted by selection massale.  The vine ages vary from ten to sixty yearls old.  Domaine Belluard has about half of the Gringet planted in the world.
Food: Tomme de Savoie 
Fromages.com tells me that:
Tomme de Savoie is often made with skim milk after the cream has been used to make butter. This is why Tommes are traditionally low in fat content (20-40 %). There are many varieties of Tommes, and they are often named after the village where they are produced. Tommes made in winter are from the milk of cows that are fed hay, very different from the Tommes made with the summer milk from cows that gaze in the high mountain pastures. The maturing process often takes several months, which gives the cheese a thick rind with a rustic appearance. It is grey in colour with patches of yellow or red moulding. The taste is soft and fruity, and occasionally one can detect a subtle flavour of grass. The pâte is pale yellow, nearly white and has small holes. It sticks to the palate and has odours of cave.
Coming back to the trio in front, Edet. At the bottom of the Aravis climb, they had 45 seconds over Hirschi and 6:45 over the peloton. As they climbed, Edet would once again drop.
KOM standings at the top of Aravis:
1. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), 66

The wine: Belluard Les Alpes 2013

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