Wednesday, July 17, 2024

Tour de France 2024: Stage 17 Saint Paul Trois Chateaux to Superdevoluy

Where are we? Heading from the Drome to the Haute Alpes

Saint Paul Trois Chateaux: The tourist website tells me that:  Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux is a town in the Drôme next to Suze-la-Rousse and Pierrelatte. Belonging to the Rhône Alpes region, it is situated on the left bank of the Rhône River.  Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux enjoys a privileged environment and geographic situation.You absolutely must visit the House of the Truffle and the Tricastin as well as the Tricastin Archaeological Museum.
Amongst the events and festivities not to be missed are the Musicales en Tricastin music festival, the farmers' market that takes place on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of each month and the truffle market open from mid-December to mid-March where, in addition to buying the most beautiful truffles, you can enjoy truffle ravioli accompanied by the region's famous wines."

Le Tour specialties:  
Tricastin black truffle. AOC Grignan-les-Adhémar wines, Eyguebelle syrups, olive oil, lavender.

Superdevoluy: It must be another ski resort. Plus an observatory: 
The NOEMA antennas form IRAM's millimetre radio astronomy observatory. These 12 antennae, each 15 metres in diameter, form the most powerful radio telescope in the northern hemisphere, using interferometry. It is located on the Bure plateau, at an altitude of 2,552m. The observatory cannot be visited, and access requires knowledge of the mountains and good physical fitness (there are no roads). 

Le Tour specialties
 Dévoluy lamb, tourtons, gratin dauphinois, tarte des Alpes. Ewe's milk cheeses, herbal teas, beer.

Christian Prudhomme says As the race homes in on the southern Alps, there will be no significant obstacles crossing the Drôme. The tests beyond that, though, are likely to encourage the formation of a large breakaway group, whose members will have a chance to shine, assuming they can deal with the climbs in the final 40 kilometres. We’ll get a clearer idea of this on the ascent of the Col Bayard, although the final selection should be made on the Col du Noyer (7.5km at 8.4%), with the final decision coming on the approach to the Superdévoluy ski station.


The stage: A day for the breakaway? Likely, given how intense things were right away with a fight to get into the breakaway. 
Le Tour's social media team speaks for me.

There would be attacks and counter attacks. As they closed in, we had two big name riders at the front.
Carapaz would take the lead and his gap looked to be growing.
Behind, attacking from the gc group, an attack from Pogacar.  Evenepoel was chasing, but Vingegaard was clearly struggling. Would he lose significant time?
He would get help from a teammate who would help pace him back up to Evenepoel and as a group they would catch Pogacar.
Up front, Carapaz was closing in on the stage win. 
Behind, Evenepoel had surged forward, reaching a teammate, Hirt, that we had forgotten was still up the road. Vingegaard and Pogacar both also had teammates helping. Team strategy!
Evenepoel would take a little bit of time.




The wine
Gael Petit Tavel La Comde des Rieu Rose 2020
Christy says: Gorgeous, bold, gloriously rolly polly, silky, sunny rose. Reminds me of my first sips of Eric Pfifferling's L'Anglore. Like that wine, this one was also love at first sip. Is it inexpensive? No it's not. But it ranks up there with the handful of roses for which I would happily pay $40. It's delicious now, with a couple years of age, but if you have the patience or the foresight, get a couple extra bottles and store them away for a while.


The food: Tarte des Alpes 
 Time to make a blueberry tart. 
Saveur tells me that "Growing wild in the mountains of the French Alps, myrtilles are similar to wild blueberries and often find themselves in the wonderful berry tarts typical of Savoyard desserts." We used our go-to Dorie Greenspan tart crust (find the recipe here) and then followed this recipe. It made for a great Tour viewing breakfast.

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