Welcome bork once again meh hearties to the Drunken Gaming Corner! We have another exciting day of touring France’s Underpants in the works just for meh wonderful readers! Wheeees!
Today’s invigorating adventures begin in Belfort, where there are bats in the belfry!
Oh wait, Belfort is actually known as the Burgundian Gate due to its strategic location between the Rhine and the Rhone Rivers, and has been a traditional route to get the delicious burgundy wines to markets all over Europe.
Therefore, French Burgundies are the Wine of the Day! Yays! Actually, burgundy is available in both red and white versions, made exclusively with either Pinot Noir for the red burgundies or with Chardonnay for the white versions. Many burgundy wines are made by small producers, and often in their garage, as opposed to bordeaux that are often produced on large estates.
Louis Jadot is a large negotiant that buys up wines from small producers to create larger, more uniform products that are easier to distribute about the planet. Any Louis Jadot products are safe, quality products that are good, consistent representations of whatever the label says. If you’re throwing a party, Louis Jadot is a good, safe way to go to make sure you are serving up something yumm at a reasonable price.
On the other hand, if you want to try to get something more delicious and exciting, the smaller producers are the way to go. The prices range from affordable to very expensive, so the key is knowing which producers to try. Pinot Noir is also known as the Heartbreak Grape because it is very fickle and extremely easy to mess up! Oregon Pinot Noirs are known for being very uneven and one needs to select carefully!
Ok, the tour has gotten under way and I notice that the buildings here, close to Switzerland, have the red roofs with white siding.
Oh noes, a serious crash with Samuel Sanchez, Olympic Champ, 35 miles into the stage! There is no apparent reason for it as he took several other riders down with him! He looks seriously hurt and by the looks of it, will need to abandon the race, awwwwws! He was removed from the course in a stretcher! This Tour has been seriously dangerous for even the best riders!
Now they are heading into Switzerland at Saignelegier, about 52 miles left. They have all ready completed several steep hills as they climb up another one. They have some interesting architecture here with some rounded buildings and a clock tower with gold-covered numbers and hands. This area was hit hard by the Plague in the 14th century. Glad it’s not the 14th Century now!
The architecture is shifting a bit here, with some red roofs, and some brown. Some of the exteriors of the buildings are pure white, some beige, some yellow. One building has shutters with bright red and white chevrons on it – Wheeees!
I love the horse display, with farmers leading their horses around in circles travelling opposite ways! Nicely done! Oh, a field of French Mountain horses galloping along with the Tour! Sturdy medium-sized brown with beautiful flowing manes!
The riders got their food and water at the food station in the town of Le Bemont with no accidents, fortunately. The riders continue on through the mountain pastoral scenes, dotted with trees. The peloton is about 2.5 minutes behind.
Swiss logging, so neat, so tidy! No mess! lol!
The cows are enjoying trotting along with the Tour at Les Genevez. Fredrik Kessiakoff of Sweden is in the lead. Some of the buildings here are newer but have the traditional colors, such as the house that has an elevated parking area that looks like a porch, so one can keep a close eye on their ride, apparently – LOL!
We have two more significant climbs coming up, can Kessiakoff keep his lead? At about 22.5 miles out is more of a wooded area, as they drop back down through the Passage a Niveau and past a Swiss lumberyard.
Ohh, nice bell tower with the colorful Argyle pattern on it in the interesting town of Boecourt! They are heading up the Cote de la Caquerelle, and around the roundabout with the star topiary in the center. Nice wooden building too! The riders continue to work up the hill as they pass a giant Swiss Army Knife and a giant wooden Swiss watch. I like the various displays as the riders make their way through the Tour. Some of them are very creative and fun!
Just over 20 miles from the finish with Pinot and Tony Gallopin going head-to-head for the sprint. The peloton is 3.5 minutes behind the hill climbers at the moment.
Sainte-Ursanne is an epic small town! Cool!
Valley of the Jora – Beautiful! The riders are really working up the hill here at 11.1 miles out. The peloton is really reducing in size as they head up the hills and some of the riders fall back. The crowd is gathering as they approach the summit at Col de la Croix.
LOL! Some people are whooping it up and having a great ole time dressed as Vikings and waving a bunch of Norsk flags all about!! Wheeees!!!
Even more spectators here cheering like crazy as Tibout Pinot sprints to finish the climb. The crowd went wild! He is the new leader!!!! He is flying along at speeds of up to 50 mph!
This is more of an industrial area around Alle at about 5 miles out as the rest of the peloton battles it out! Frank Schleck, Bradley Wiggins, Cadel Evans, and more are seriously competing with each other!
With 2.6 miles out, Pinot is still ahead by 4o seconds as they ramp up the intensity! Pedal pedal pedal!
1.8 miles left, can he pull it off? He took the short way around the roundabout! The architecture has shifted yet again with some yellows, greens and greys in the siding and some built-in turrets. The crowd is going wild!
Cadel Evans launches an attack! Can he overtake Pinot? 0.6 miles left! Cadel is fighting for his right to party!!! And now around the dinosaur in the roundabout! Nice dirt dinosaur in the field toos!
Pinot is able to haul some ass and hold the rest of them off to win the stage at the beautiful ancient town of Porrentruy!!!! Nicely done, young Pinot! Cadel Evans finished in second today! What an exciting day of racing!!!!
Awwws, a few riders are about 10 minutes back, but the main thing is just to finish.
The Bulge of the Day goes to Fredrik Kessiakoff. He was obviously glad to be up on the podium – LOL! Nice outline!!!
Tomorrow is the time trials, and Tuesday is a well-deserved rest day.
Thank you for once again reading meh Tour de Underpants updates here in the Drunken Gaming Corner! It’s been totally epic bringing it to you tram!!!! Haz the funz!!!