Sunday, July 11, 2021

Wine & Food of Le Tour 2021, Stage 15: Céret to Andorre la Vielle

Where are we? Heading to Andorra!

Céret: Le Tour shares some art history: The destiny that would lead Céret, a small town in the Pyrénées-Orientales, to become a beacon of modern art in the history of painting began the day four young artists decided to travel from Paris to the South of France, to take a break in the sun, in Catalonia.
These "discoverers" were Déodat de Séverac, Frank Burty Haviland and Manolo Hugué, soon joined by their "leader", Pablo Picasso.
They were later emulated by Gris, Herbin, Kisling, Picabia, Dunoyer de Segonzac, and later still by Brune, Masson, Loutreuil, Krémègne, Soutine, Chagall, and many others such as Dubuffet, Dufy, Gargallo, Chapiro, Blatas, Pignon. Painters and sculptors, but also poets Max Jacob, André Salmon, Guillaume Apollinaire, Tristan Tzara.
It was here that unfailing links were forged with local artists and intellectuals such as Aristide Maillol, Pierre Camo, Victor Crastre and Ludovic Massé.
The international fame of the small town of Céret is thus the result of a succession of coincidences, of the meeting of individual destinies that give the peaceful capital of Vallespir a destiny and gave it its nickname: "The Mecca of Cubism".

Andorre la Vielle: Let's hear about the area and cycling: A good part of the peloton will be back home after this stage and for the rest day in Andorra. Julian Alaphilippe, Egan Bernal, Dan Martin, the Yates brothers and many others have settled in the Principality, which is gradually replacing Monaco in the hearts of professional riders, both for its tax status and for the immediate proximity of the summits. It was also in Andorra la Vella, where he lived, that Nicolas Portal, the sports director of the Inéos team, died in 2019.
Due to its privileged position, the Principality and its capital have hosted many cycling events, such as the Tour of Catalonia, la Semana Catalana, but also two of the three Grand Tours, the Tour de France and the Vuelta, because of their border location. In 1964, Julio Jimenez, the future three-time king of the mountains of the race, inaugurated the Andorran prize list of the Grand Boucle. Since then, Andorra la Vella has mainly served as a launching pad for stages that ended on the flat, the last time being in 2009, when Luis Leon Sanchez won in Saint-Girons. The Tour's most recent visit to the principality was in 2016, when Tom Dumoulin won in Arcalis before a rest day in the capital.
The Vuelta also visited the Andorran capital regularly between 1965 and 2015, when Mikel Landa won there ahead of Fabio Aru.

Le Tour specialties
Céret: Céret cherries, hazelnuts
Andorre la Vielle: escudella (pot au feu), trinxat (cabbage, potatoes and bacon), mountain meats, Andorran-style river trout, cold meats, cheeses, wines and craft beers

Christian Prudhomme says:A start in Céret for the first ever time, a first stop in the Pyrénées-Orientales area since 2009 and Thomas Voeckler’s victory in Perpignan, a journey through Prades, Font-Romeu, the col de Puymorens, the Port d'Envalira and Beixalis with slopes that are as tough to climb as they are tricky to descend: the Principality will crown a real king of the mountains.

The stage: Lots of climbing, but also a downhill finish. Also, it was quite warm. Again, lots of attacks as riders wanted both polka dot jersey points and a chance to get into the break for a stage win. At kilometer thirty five, there were thirty two riders in the lead. That group would split and come back together. After the intermediate sprint point, won by Matthews, they had 8:45 over the peloton.
The riders in that group were: Wout van Aert, Steven Kruijswijk, Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), Dylan Teuns, Wout Poels, Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious), Vincenzo Nibali, Kenny Elissonde, Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafredo, David Gaudu, Valentin Madouas, Bruno Armirail (Groupama-FDJ), Dylan van Baarle, Jonathan Castroviejo (Ineos Grenadiers), Julian Alaphilippe, Davide Ballerini (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Michael Woods, Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation), Neilson Powless, Ruben Guerreiro (EF-Nippo), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic), Michael Matthews (Team BikeExchange), Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), Lukas Postlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe), Ion Izaguirre (Astana-PremierTech), Aurélian Paret-Peintre (AG2R Citroën), Sergio Henao (Qhubeka-NextHash), Mark Donovan (Team DSM) , Ruben Fernández (Cofidis), and Franck Bonnamour (B&B Hotels).
Abandonment, Bouhaini, who had been riding solo, twenty minutes down. He had been injured in a crash earlier in the race. Speaking of sprinters, at a but over one hundred kilometers to go, Cavendish would drop from the bunch, with teammates.
Meanwhile, up front, the race for points was the focus.
With that result,  Michael Woods had 60 points, Wout Poels 59, Wout van Aert 51 and Nairo Quintana 50. 
Behind, after the descent, the Cavendish group had made it back to the bunch. They would likely drop again, but it was a good sign. I was once again wondering if a Go Fund Me would make sense to fund a grupetto cam.
The fact that Cavendish was still in the peloton was a sign that they had not gone very hard yet in the main bunch. Normally there would be many groups on the road by this point. Would there be attacks to come or would those be limited to the breakaway group? As if they heard me, the peloton sped up and Cavendish was dropped. Ahead, the polka dot jersey battle continued to provide excitement. 

KOM provisional standings after col de Puymorens

1. Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation), 62
2. Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious), 62
3. Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), 56
4. Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic), 50
5. Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), 41


On to Andorra they rode!

As they continued on, both the break and the peloton were shrinking. Forty seven kilometers to go and the gap had dropped to 6:50. The attacks from the front group would start, with the race for king of the mountain points on. Setting off was Quintana. He would crest the kom point solo. In the points quest:  Nairo Quintana, 10 pts, Van Aert, 8 pts, Poels, 6 pts, Woods, 4 pts, Valverde, 2 pts, and Gaudu, 1 pt. Behind them, the peloton had been dramatically reduced, with Pogacar isolated and Martin losing ground.
Ahead, Quintana would be caught and there was a group of seventeen in front.
Next up. Attacking again was Quintana and that reduced the group quickly. Soon though, he would be dropped. At the front of the group, Kuss would get a gap and looked very strong. Far behind, Martin was losing time and looked to be dropping from his spot in second. An attack from Carapaz in the yellow jersey group behind. With so much action in progress, we did not have eyes on every move. Chasing behind Kuss was Valverde. In the yellow jersey group, they were almost taking turns attacking each other.
At the front, Kuss crested the top of the climb with twenty seconds over Valverde. 
Behind, more attacks came in the yellow jersey group. Pogacar had covered all of them.
Ahead, Kuss was maintaining his lead over Valverde. Three kilometers to go and he had twenty five seconds. He would hold on!
Stage:


GC: 




The wine: Res Fortes Red Blend 2018 Easy to drink and perfect with a pizza at a cabin near Yosemite. From the producer: The Res Fortes winery in Roussillon in the foothills of the Pyrenees has well-established vines, some of which have been growing for over 80 years. The combination of these vines, the mineral-rich schist terrain and a perfect grape growing climate means that exceptional fruit is produced consistently every year.
Hand-picking all our grapes and carefully selecting only the best fruit, nothing is harvested until Moritz tastes it. Each of our vineyard terroirs has its unique qualities which dictate how we choose to ferment and blend the grapes and then age the wine.
Our methods borne of years of passionate winemaking study has brought Moritz Bak’s innovative vision to fruition with amazing speed, as recognised by experts worldwide.

The food: Andorran trinxat
This is undoubtedly one of the flagship dishes of Pyrenean cuisine. In Andorra, as well as in Alt Urgell and Cerdanya, it is very popular and occupies a prominent place on the menus of the great restaurants. Heir to the popular gastronomic tradition, its recipe is a fine example of the cuisine of leftovers and proximity, always with quality products (green cabbage, potatoes, garlic, bacon...). The base does not vary much, if at all, among the different recipes of the regions where this typical dish is found. A local touch or the interpretation of the chef in the kitchen can sometimes lead to a slight variation. Trinxat is proof that a dish that is easy to prepare, with simple ingredients, can be a quality gastronomic reference. As a good winter mountain dish, it also provides the necessary calories to fight against the cold.
In Andorra, "lo trinxat" can be found on the menus of the bordes, which often offer the traditional cuisine of the country.
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