Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Wine of Le Tour 2020: Stage 4

To our first mountain top finish of the Tour we go. 
The race director tells us that: An altitude finish as early on the Tour is extremely rare. The Grand Départ in Nice allows the race to evolve rapidly in the spectacular scenery of Hautes-Alpes. The day’s program with a first hilly excursion in the Dévoluy mountains isn’t made to split the pack too much. But the final climb to Orcières-Merlette, 1 800 metres high, should give some precious information on the state of form of the favourites.
So essentially, we may learn something today.

 To the Hautes-Alpes we go. Perhaps a visit to a national park?  Les Ecrins National Park was created in March 1973. It is one of 10 French national parks. Covering an area of ​​159,600 ha and grouping 49 member municipalities, the Massif of Les Ecrins is a large group of high mountains (150 peaks over 3,000 m and some 10,000 ha of glaciers).

The park has 175 hiking and mountain-biking routes (outside the heart of the park) and nearly 750 km of maintained and signposted trails. It hosts more than 2,500 plant species (small mallet, white fir, European larch, etc.) and more than 350 vertebrate species (golden eagle, groundhog, griffon vulture, chamois...).

 Since we had out specialities from Sisteron yesterday, today ORCIÈRES-MERLETTE:  flower jam, La Sorcière beer, goat cheese.






The stage: One has to appreciate this, from Le Tour: Today’s daily newspaper Le Parisien wonders if a famous sentence from French Emperor Napoleon will apply to Julian Alaphilippe: “If I cross Sisteron, nobody will stop me until Paris.” Napoleon made that statement on his way back from Elba island to reconquer power in the capital of France in March 1815 and he made it. Part of today’s stage, from Corps (km 97.5) to Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur (km 122.5) will be contested on the road N85 also known as Route Napoleon.
But, you know, no pressure.

 Meanwhile, our break of the day: Nils Politt, Krists Neilands, Mathieu Burgaudeau, Alexis Vuillermoz, Tiesj Benoot, and Quentin Pacher. With just about 115 kilometers to go, their gap was around three minutes.
A sprintermediate and the winner from the field today was Sam Bennett bringing him even on points with Sagan in the fight for the green jersey. LeTour tells me that  Shall the situation remain the same after the stage finish, the green jersey will be awarded to the highest ranked on GC since none of them has won any stage or intermediate sprint so far. For now, Sagan has an advantage of 11 minutes over Bennett.
Eighty kilometers to go and the gap was still over three minutes.
Much like yesterday when we were waiting for the sprint, today we are waiting for a gc battle. Or mini-battle, at least.
Thirty five kilometers to go and the gap was about 2:40 and I was wondering if social distancing protocols might reduce the number of horrible runners on mountain top finishes?
A grupetto! It did seem like time for that.
Twenty five kilometers to go and the gap was about 1:45.
Ugly crash for Benoot, but he was back up and riding quickly, despite the unintentional gymnastics.
Twenty kilometers and there were three left in the lead, Pacher, Neilands and Vuillermoz. Soon enough, it would be Nielands solo in the lead as the gap continued to fall.
Eleven kilometers and under one minute The final climb was next and the gap was dropping quickly. Kilometers and he was caught. 
 
At the bottom of the final climb, the teams were so bunched together, it almost looked like sprint trains. As they continued to climb, attack by Rolland, but he would not get a gap. With 2.5 kilometers to go there were 35 riders left in the lead group. One kilometer and the group was much smaller.
Roglic! Nice ride by him to take the stage.
But Alaphilippe was close enough to keep yellow, Yates in second and Roglic up to third.

 Top 5 on the stage:
1. Primoz Roglic
2. Tadej Pogacar
3. Guillaume Martin
4. Nairo Quintana
5. Julian Alaphilippe

The wine: Guillaume Gilles "La Combe de Chaillot" Cornas
A young man who worked chez Robert Michel and Jean-Louis Chave from 2000 to 2004. He gained an extra 2 hectares in early 2007, now up to 2.5 ha, and shows promise. The wines are traditional, cleanly made and good punch lies at their heart.
The importer tells me that: 
His Cornas is as it should be and is exactly as we like it: brawny, sometimes austere, profound, sauvage. He cultivates his vineyards with an organic philosophy and his wines are made using the natural yeasts from his grapes. He produces three wines, two of which are in excruciatingly limited supply.

A little shopping on my own wine rack for this one. John Linvingtone Learmonth, who I trust on all things Rhone says:


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