Thursday, July 14, 2022

Wine and Food of the Tour De France 2022 Stage 12: Briancon to Alpe d' Huez

Where are we? Climbing some of the Tour's most famous mountains.

Briancon:  The local tourist site tells me:
As the King’s engineer, Vauban aged 34, was responsible for supervising works to fortify the kingdom. Thus, three of the 160 forts that he had built or restored, are in the Hautes-Alpes. Château-Queyras, Mont-Dauphin and Briançon. The latter two were classed as World Heritage by UNESCO in 2008.
Due to the natural terrain in Briançon, Vauban was unable to follow any existing pattern.  He designed vertical, staggered urban defences and suggested creating a belt of forts to increase defence of the town.  
In Mont-Dauphin, the fortifications, which are remarkably conserved, were built from scatch directly on a plateau.
Visiting these major sites enables us to understand part of Vauban’s genius, which is particularly spectacular in such mountain sites. 
It is also an opportunity to visit the towns of Briançon and Mont-Dauphin, which are particularly attractive and lively.

Le Tour specialties: cabbage pie and sausage, tourtons du Champsaur (pies), blueberry pie, génépi. Manufacture of alphorns and sundials

Alpe d' Huez: From the resorts site: The Alpe d’Huez is situated on a fully south-facing plateau at 1860 m above sea level, and its skiable area enjoys maximum exposure to the sun. So enjoy a day’s skiing in the sun: up to 7 1/2 hours a day of sun in December, up to 11 hours a day in April. The French Weather Bureau has recorded an average of 300 days’ sunshine a year at the resort! Also, on a fine day, you can see 1/5e of France from Pic Blanc.
Huez village : 1450m (4, 657ft) – Alpe d’Huez resort : 1860m (6,100ft) – Pic Blanc : 3330m (10,992ft)
Location : Massif des Grandes Rousses – Dauphiné – Isère
Exposure : South
Features : Health and tourist resort, referenced as “Grand Domaine”, Southern exposure, listed as a Great Ski Area by the “Nouvelles Glisses” Club and Ski France.
Activities : Winter and summer multiactivity resort
Population : 1700 permanent residents – 32,500 beds.

Le Tour specialties: caillette: meat pâté (pork throat and liver, chard leaf, mushroom, spice, crépine). Farcis de l'Oisans (leek ball, cabbage, potato, egg,


Christian Prudhomme says: There’s a wink to history here as well as a desire to close the Battle of the Alps on a route tailor- made for the best climbers. It’s an exact replica of the Briançon-Alpe d’Huez stage of 1986, with the ascent of the Galibier once again on the programme, followed by the climb of the Col de la Croix de Fer, before tackling the 21 hairpins leading up to the Isère resort. It will provide an intermediate assessment of the state of play.

The stage: Happy Bastille Day! The early breakaway consisted of Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), Anthony Perez (Cofidis), Kobe Goossens (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert), Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), Matîs Louvel (Arkéa-Samsic) and Gerhard Schönberger (B&B Hotels-KTM. Joining them would be Ciccone and Meintjes. Way behind, 48 riders were already in the autobus/grupetto.
The lead group would add riders.
The word of the day so far was slog. As in, really, there was still more to come? As they climbed the Croix de Fer, the break came apart. Behind, an illustration of team strength from Jumbo was bringing the gap down. Ahead: Thirty eight kilometers to go and the advantage of Pidcock, Froome, Meintjes, Powless and Ciccone was at 5 minutes. The speed on the downhill was rather frightening to watch, seeming to hit 100 km/h. Looming. The five leaders started climbing to L'Alpe d'Huez with an advantage of 6:10. With that gap, it was very likely the winner would come from this group. They had just over 14 kilometers to climb, with huge crowds and named "corners" along the way.
The first to drop was Powless, but he would yo yo back on. Pidcock was looking very strong.
Behind, Wout van Aert finally dropped from the front of the yellow jersey group, almost completely stopping on the road. Many riders dropped from the group quickly, including Jungels and Pinot.
7.5 kilometers to go and Pidcock had Meintjes chasing at 10 seconds and Froome at 20.
His lead would continue to grow.
Dropping from the yellow jersey group, Bardet. It had not been the best Bastille Day for the french riders. Left in the yellow jersey group: Kuss, Vingegaard, Pogacar, Thomas and Mas.
Attack Pogacar with the yellow jersey quickly on his wheel. They would regroup and it was back to 5 or close to 5 with Mas dangling. 
Two kilometers to go and Pidcock had over 30 seconds.
Attacking again, Pogacar, but again, covered by the yellow jersey. Coming back up to them, Thomas. 
Pidcock! Just wow. The youngest ever winner on the mountain.
Back in the yellow jersey group, there had been further regrouping.  
Stage:

GC:


The wine: Ardoisieres Argile St-Pierre De Soucy Rouge 2019 from Copake Wine Works Christy says: Southern part of the Saoive. Gamay + Persan
Feiring Line Wine Society: November 2021 Selection

From Alice: In 2003, Brice Omont transplanted from Champagne to the slopes of Savoie, under Mont Blanc. He now has about 16ha, planted to échalas and guyot on schist and limestone terroirs, with an elevation of about 500 meters. The grapes are fermented without destemming, then the wine gets pressed off and finishes in old oak for about nine months. Notes? I’m sorry. I drank it. I Loved it. I can’t remember the taste details other than velvet. Riveting. Pomegranate and bramble. Fresh. Delicious. A magnum is needed to watch it properly develop. Oh well… this bottle will have to do!

The food: Genepi/y
This Savoyard  is made from the génépi aromatic plants from the genus Artemesia (commonly called Wormwood) that grow in the high mountains of the Alps.  Genepi is produced by steeping the aromatic wormwood flower heads in a strong clear alcohol such as vodka or a pure grain alcohol with the addition of sugar to create the liqueur.
Punch has some cocktail suggestions. Personally, I'm going for the Thirsty Monk. 
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