Friday, July 1, 2022

Wine and Food of the TDF 2022, Stage 1: Copenhagen

Where are we? Much like the Giro, starting abroad. This time, in Copenhagen, with a short time trial.  

Copenhagen: The capital city of Denmark and a place I have always wanted to visit. LeTour suggests visiting the Little Mermaid statue, Tivoli Gardens and more than several castles. 
Visit Copenhagen has a few suggestions for a Han's Christian Andersen themed day telling me that:  Hans Christian Andersen spent most of his life in Copenhagen and several of the places that were the centre of his life can still be visited today.
Among these The Royal Danish Theatre, which played a huge role in his life as well as some of the cafés and homes he frequented. H.C. Andersen spent the majority of his life living in three different houses in Nyhavn and here he wrote some of his first fairy tales.
On H.C. Andersens Boulevard you can see one of the two statues of the writer in Copenhagen. The other one you will find in The King’s Garden. The most famous statue in Copenhagen is also linked to H.C. Andersen: The Little Mermaid, which today is a significant symbol of Copenhagen. H.C. Andersen died in 1875 and is buried in Assistens Kirkegård in Nørrebro, which is a beautiful place to visit and used as a park by locals.See also Hans Christian Andersen's Denmark. 

Le Tour's regional specialties: stegt flaesh (roast pork in parsley sauce with potatoes), smorrebrod (slice of rye bread with cold cuts, fish, cheese and condiments), wienerbrod (pastry)



Thoughts from Christian Prudhomme: The Queen Louise Bridge is reputed to be the busiest cycling route in the world. The riders will start the Tour by heading down the time trial start ramp one by one to tackle a circuit within the city that will take them past Tivoli Gardens and the Little Mermaid. There are a handful of bends on a course that’s quite technical, but these shouldn’t prevent the day’s most powerful rider from taking the first yellow jersey.


The stage: A short time trial to kick things off. Of note: the weather forecast is not great. In an attempt to adjust to that, and since for an opening time trial teams can select the order of their riders, many of the favorites will go early.
Speaking of early, just to get this out of the way: it is terrible that Cav is not here. Also not here, his teammate Alaphilippe, who is still recovering from his serious crash at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.  
Speaking of crashes, the first one of the Tour for Bissegger on a slippery turn. He would be back up riding, but that would serve as a warning for rides to come. He would crash again. Yikes.
Mollema at 15:34 was in the hot seat early. Next in that seat, Van Der Poel at 15:30. Coming in just past his time, Roglic. 
A bit later on we had Ganna, Pogacar and van Aert all out at the same time. 
Ganna! The world champion into the hot seat. But he likely did not even have enough time to sit down, as van Aert came flying in. In right behind him and slotting into second, Pogacar. 
Van Aert even looked fast. That was likely to be the winning time on the day, despite the 90 or so riders yet to start. LaPorte had set the best intermediate time, but almost immediately after, crashed.
A shocker! Yves Lampaert on dry roads  in with the top time: 15'17''76.
Off went the last rider, Soler. 
I laughed.





The wine: For the record: there will be no actual wine until Stage 6! 
To say that I know very little about Akvavit would not be an exaggeration. But, The San Francisco Chronicle to the rescue: 
"The drink: "Aquavit is indeed the national spirit," says Martin Bjelgaard, marketing director V&S Distillers, which produces 17 different aquavits, including Aalborg Taffel, Hoker Snaps, Harald Jensen and Aalborg Jubilaeums. Ranging in hue from clear to brown and even bright red, some Danish aquavits are aged in barrels and some are flavored with oak or berry extracts. Most have forward dill, coriander and caraway flavors. 

The tradition: Don't sip a shot of aquavit while in Denmark. But before chugging the stuff down, take time to toast your companions. Danes raise their glasses together, say "skal" (which sounds like "skull"), and make eye contact with each person at the table before drinking. Before setting their empty glasses back down on the table, they again make eye contact with each person. While each shot of aquavit is served with a glass of beer, expect at least two rounds - "because you need one for each leg," says tour guide Ida Saval - with the toast repeated each time.

The food:  Stegt Flaesh, From Visit Denmark 
They says: In 2014, roast pork with parsley sauce was officially declared Denmark's national dish. More than 40% of Danes voted for this delicious roast pork belly dish - which came in as #1 just above smørrebrød.

Ingredients:
12 slices Pork belly
½ tsp Salt
500 ml Skimmed or low fat milk
2 ½ tbsp Cornstarch
200 ml Freshly chopped parsley
½ tsp Sugar
1 tsp Salt
¼ tsp Freshly ground pepper
1 kg Boiled potatoes

Recipe from daenischessen.com
Method
Place the bacon on a wire rack in the oven with a frying pan underneath.
Fry the bacon in the oven until golden and crispy, for about 30 minutes. Then add the salt.
Meanwhile, put the milk and cornstarch in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir it at the same time.
Add parsley and sugar and bring the sauce to the boil for 5 minutes.
Season the sauce with salt and pepper.
Serve the pork with boiled potatoes and parsley sauce.

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