Sunday, July 7, 2024

Tour de France 2024 Stage 9: Troyes


Where are we? Starting at stopping in a single town today. in the Aube.  

Troyes: Michelin says: The historic centre has often lopsided half-timbered houses and streets so narrow that objects can be passed from house to opposite house... Troyes is a city of art, with old mansions, museums, and ten listed churches boasting stained glass from the 12C to the 20C. It has long been the French hosiery capital and the city retains a number of renowned manufacturers.
It also has an official  Cities and Countries of Art and History designation from the French government. It apparebtly has over 3000 medieval half-timbered houses.

Le Tour Specialties: champagne (2nd largest production area), Riceys rosé, andouillette, sauerkraut, cheeses (Chaource, Champ sur Barse and Mussy)

Christian Prudhomme says:  The Tour’s first week concludes with a new feature: white roads, which are already an emblematic feature of Strade Bianche and Paris-Tours. The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift made the first passage across Champagne’s gravel roads close to Troyes in 2022. There will be 14 sectors, including six in the final part of the stage, extending to 32km in total, each sector pitching the riders onto the gravel and into the dust.


The stage: One of those, you might not wine the Tour today, but you could possibly lose it days.  Why? Gravel is challenging. Bike handling is important, but a puncture at the wrong time could have serious impact. 
The break was a challenge to form with multiple riders trying and failing to get away. 
Heading into sector 2 of the gravel, there was a 14 rider break with 12 or so chasers between them and the main bunch.
Amazing to see riders running with their bikes to get up a hill. Splits in the peloton wiht Roglic in trouble behind. Roglic and co would slowly make their way back to the main bunch.
Under 100 km to go and the gap to the break was only about 1 minute. 
Some sort of issue for Vingegaard as we saw a teammate, Tratnik, with his bike by the side of the road. He would chase back on Tratnik's bike to the bunch with a surprisingly small amount of help.
Picture of the day?
  
Ninety km to go and Pogacar was leading the bunch on the descent. The gap to the front group was only about 40 seconds.  An attack or just avoiding issues? Hard to tell but the bunch would rejoin him. 80 kms and 55 seconds to the break. Riders were visibly struggling. Attack Evenepoel. That was startling. Joining him, Pogacar and Vingegaard.  The trio would catch the break with over 70 kms to go, but would fall back. One wonders what the point of that was.
Further along and Evenepoel was struggling a bit at the back of the bunch. That may have been a positioning error. He would get back on.
Big crash for Vlasov. He got back up and was riding, but looked a bit wobbly. I was very glad to see the medical car reach him for an assessment.
Closing in on 40 kms to go and there were attacks with some jumping from the peloton including Van der Poel. He, of course, was a pre-stage favorite for the day.
Just over 221 km to go and attack Pogacar. Would he stay away or would his rivals get back to him? They seemed to be recovering, with Vingegaard getting a lot of help from a teammate to rejoin. Evenepoel was not far behind. The one struggling the most seemed to be Roglic.
Ahead the lead group had started to attack each other. Surging forward, Stuyven.
Attack again Pogacar. Less of a gap this time.
Under 4 kms to go and 9 seconds or so for Stuyven. But they would catch him with about a km to go. Turgis with a nice sprint to take the stage. 
Time for the rest day!




The wine:  Champagne Robert Barbichon Coteaux Champenois Rouge 2022
A still red wine from Champagne, made from 100% estate grown pinot nor. 
From an importer:  Champagne Robert Barbichon represents four generations worth of work in the Côte des Bar. Recent history has not been kind to this somewhat far flung region of Champagne, although prior to the 19th century the region was a fairly important source of wine. Robert Barbichon is now in the very capable hands of Robert’s two sons, Thomas & Maxime, who after learning viticulture and winemaking from their father took over duties at the family estate. They have since pushed the envelope on farming by quickly converting to organic practices and are since 2005 have been practicing biodynamics in all of the family holdings.

The food: Sauerkraut 
I got a can of this: Andre Laurent is a fourth-generation French manufacturer of certified Red Label sauerkraut and has been growing cabbages in the Champagne region since 1906.

Since 1906, Paul Laurent has been growing cabbages for sauerkraut on his farm in Blignicourt. His son Andre took over from his parents in 1945 and grew the family business during the post-war period. Butchers and restaurant owners all wanted to his sauerkraut and production grew from 800 tons to 9000 tons from the 1950s to the 1990s. Cabbage grown in the the heart of the Champagne region benefit from the land’s growing conditions, producing sauerkraut that is especially soft and light.
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