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Tour de France 2020

Anyone who's hit the wall on a bike (I did once - 140 miles + insufficient food) knows that feeling of the mind being willing but the legs not cooperating - I think Gareth's point is a good one - it just might not be possible to predict until you try to go and there's nothing there.
 
cutting42 said:
I have never been in the situation but I wonder if you just don't know until the moment comes. DM's comments about the team taking the lead away from Jumbo Visma led to most of Rog's team to drop leaving him only with Foss. If Landa had the legs it was a great strategy. Worth a go I'd say.
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It just seemed really odd as it gave Jumbo a day off, Landa just doesn’t have it over 3 weeks, sad but true.
 
sean99 said:
Anyone who's hit the wall on a bike (I did once - 140 miles + insufficient food) knows that feeling of the mind being willing but the legs not cooperating - I think Gareth's point is a good one - it just might not be possible to predict until you try to go and there's nothing there.
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Well, I’ve done it myself several times but Landa is a professional athlete with team support & he knows his numbers. Personally think he was probably a bit scared to call it earlier, Ellingworth is not to be messed with.

He did a hare brained attack today which didn’t really achieve anything. Easy to say from the armchair though.
 
Woodface said:
It just seemed really odd as it gave Jumbo a day off, Landa just doesn’t have it over 3 weeks, sad but true.
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Not sure it really gave them the day off, Jumbo would have wanted to pace the GC group in a way that assisted Roglic. The pace was probably harder than they wanted but in the end the class of Roglic paid off. It made for quite an entertaining stage.
 
andrew d said:
Not sure it really gave them the day off, Jumbo would have wanted to pace the GC group in a way that assisted Roglic. The pace was probably harder than they wanted but in the end the class of Roglic paid off. It made for quite an entertaining stage.
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But they weren’t taking the wind which does make a big difference, it was an entertaining stage though.
 
Tough one today. Not a vineyard in sight up in the French mountains, and stage winner Michal Kwiatowski comes from Chelmźa, which is the name given to Chelmsford by its natives.

I jest of course, it is in northern Poland. Poland has a wine industry, mostly concentrated in the south of the country. It seems there are vineyards in the north, but I can’t find any of them.

So I’ve chickened out and opted for a bottle of award-winning beer brewed in La Roche-sur-Foron where today’s stage ended, la Rochoise Bière Blonde. It’s described as a Belgian trappist-style dubbel, but I’m prepared to bet it isn’t a patch on the Rochefort I’m tucking into right now. Perhaps next year we should have a Tour de Belgique. Hang the expense, we’ll have a 75cl bottle for 8€.

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https://bieronomy.com/france/739-blonde-75-cl-la-rochoise-la-rochoise-3770008299313.html
 
Another good stage today, and another win for Sunweb. This has been the best Tour for ages, in that there usually seem to be several possible winners for each stage - proper racing going on.
 
I’m afraid if Soren Kragh Andersen thought he was going to shove another bottle of Danish wine onto the pfm Podium of Glory by winning today, he will be disappointed. Not only did the route pass through Chateau-Chalon, a village with its own AOC, it also went right past the door of one of the makers of the rather unusual Vin Jaune.

Vin Jaune is made from the Savagnin grape, and apparently tastes similar to Fino sherry, despite not being fortified. This is due to the wine being matured in barrels under a layer of yeast. It can also take on curry-like aromas. Whether that is a good thing or not is a matter of personal taste, I suppose.

Some of the best Vin Jaune comes from the Chateau-Chalon AOC, which has specific regulations about alcohol level and time spent in cask (at least six years and three months.) Vin Jaune has its own bottle with a capacity of 62cl, supposedly the amount left from a litre when the time finally comes for it to be bottled.

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This is pretty much the view the cyclists would have had of Domaine Geneletti today as they whizzed past. So it seems obvious to choose a bottle of their Chateau-Chalon. I suggest the 2010, as that seems to be the oldest on sale. If you have a chicken from Bourg-en-Bresse (where today’s stage began) to hand, it is meant to be an excellent match.

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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Château-Chalon_AOC
 
That was sport at it's very, very best. The exultation of the winner, the dark depths of the loser.

I guess that Roglic was exposed as a paper tiger without his exceptional team around him.
 
That was a riveting watch. I still can't believe it, mind you Roglic was as white as sheet over the last 5 km even so he turned in a very respectable time.
Looking at the faces of Tom Dumoulin and Wout van Aert showed how incredible that Pogacar ride was.
Well I hope that he doesn't do a Bernal next year.
Shame for Carapaz if he had been let off the leash sooner instead of domestic duties for Bernal then he might be wearing the polka dots in Paris.
Race hero has to be Ritchie Porte best I have ever seen him ride.
 
If the cyclists hadn’t stopped at the top of the hill today but had converted their potential energy back into kinetic they would have come to Thann after about 20km. I’m shoehorning this in because Thann is at the southernmost tip of the Alsace wine area, and I can bore for England on that subject. And usually do - they are my favourite white wines.

Because of that, and because I’m operating on a crummy 4G connection in rural France, I’ll keep it brief. The best wines in Thann come from the Rangen Grand Cru, on an old volcano. From https://www.vinsalsace.com/en/grands-crus/rangen/...

‘This fiery terroir profoundly marks the taste-aspect of the wines. A straightforward and delicate acidity lingers in a delicious length. The wines are usually marked by aromas of ash, burning and gunpowder. When young, these wines are often subdued and appear restrained. After 5 to 7 years, they then start to fully express themselves. Riesling is refined and precise. It unveils a trace of gunpowder-type and crystal-clear minerality. Pinot Gris intensifies its natural character of its terroir-specific smoke and ash character. Gewurztraminer has intense opulence with a tasty balance thanks to a perceptible bitter-base saline sparkle.’

Crikey, a bit sturm und drang... let’s go for smoke and ash. Zind-Humbrecht are one of Alsace’s finest, with prices to match. I suggest their Pinot Gris - warning, do not click on the link if you are distressed by expensive bottles. (I picked up some of their entry-level stuff for a tenner a bottle once - imagine how pleased I was!)

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