The Tour - stage 13 *spoiler*

No_Ta_Doctor

Rick Chasey wrote:

Imagine it's reasonably unique to France to have a celebrity pacifist.

*ahem*

Is English Language Protectionism allowed on spoiler threads? If so I'd like to point out that "unique" is not a comparative term. A thing can either be unique or not. It can't be a bit unique, more unique, slightly unique, very unique or reasonably unique.

The word you were actually looking for was uniquererest.

Dorset_Boy

Anyone got a map of the last few kms to today's finish?

TimB34

Please refer to my posts of yesterday for start town goat cheese info.

Today's ville d'arrivée appears to be one of the most uninteresting towns in the whole of France. It has a population of around 11,000 and is located in the middle of nowhere (otherwise known as "the bit with endless wheat fields that takes ages to drive through when heading south to the Massif Central").

Even the French wikipedia page for the town struggles. The majority of WWII passed without incident, until June 1944 when the Vichy Militia arrested and massacred a number of inhabitants.

The town was the arrival from a 53km individual time trial in the 2008 TdF - won by Stefan Schumacher.

The inrng stage profile notes that the cat 4 climb before the finish is nothing, but there's an odd kink in the final km:

goonz

That little meander in the road looks a bit tasty at around 500m to go...

Macaloon

That's going to be a handy filling station for anybody needing last minute hydration.

TheBigBean

No tA Doctor wrote:

Is English Language Protectionism allowed on spoiler threads?

No. Otherwise it results in an endless battle of people pointing out pedantic things e.g. your misuse of the word protectionism.

TimB34

In fact, that little meander is very odd.

Following the route on Google Streetview shows that the roads at the top of the triangle are tiny - typical French village back roads.

Unless there are roadworks on the three-lane Av Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, it just seems to be avoiding taking this roundabout head-on:

alihisgreat

Carlton is in an interesting mood today:

Carlton Kirby ‏@carltonkirby 4m
Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you see him without an erection, make him a sandwich...It's Crap Gag Friday! Tag all jokes #CGF


Commentary should be even worse than usual then.

goonz

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

Carlton is in an interesting mood today:

Carlton Kirby ‏@carltonkirby 4m
Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you see him without an erection, make him a sandwich...It's Crap Gag Friday! Tag all jokes #CGF


Commentary should be even worse than usual then.

Guy clearly needs to get laid.

goonz

TimB34 wrote:

In fact, that little meander is very odd.

Following the route on Google Streetview shows that the roads at the top of the triangle are tiny - typical French village back roads.

Unless there are roadworks on the three-lane Av Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, it just seems to be avoiding taking this roundabout head-on:

So that tasty looking meander is actually just a little roundabout. Still with the pace the teams will be going could get messy.

TimB34

No, the race takes a left turn about 250m before the roundabout then turns sharp right to arrive at the roundabout from the north side instead of the west side.

above_the_cows

goonz wrote:

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

Carlton is in an interesting mood today:

Carlton Kirby ‏@carltonkirby 4m
Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you see him without an erection, make him a sandwich...It's Crap Gag Friday! Tag all jokes #CGF


Commentary should be even worse than usual then.

Guy clearly needs to get laid.

The thought of Carlton Kirby... Where is the mind bleach. :shock:

alihisgreat

Above The Cows wrote:

goonz wrote:

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

Carlton is in an interesting mood today:

Carlton Kirby ‏@carltonkirby 4m
Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you see him without an erection, make him a sandwich...It's Crap Gag Friday! Tag all jokes #CGF


Commentary should be even worse than usual then.

Guy clearly needs to get laid.

The thought of Carlton Kirby... Where is the mind bleach. :shock:

http://mindbleach.org/

above_the_cows

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

goonz wrote:

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

Carlton is in an interesting mood today:

Carlton Kirby ‏@carltonkirby 4m
Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you see him without an erection, make him a sandwich...It's Crap Gag Friday! Tag all jokes #CGF


Commentary should be even worse than usual then.

Guy clearly needs to get laid.

The thought of Carlton Kirby... Where is the mind bleach. :shock:

http://mindbleach.org/

Is that the last cat left, seeing as every time someone starts a thread on Sky a cat dies? Sorry, sorry off topic, off topic. I'm trying to find a recipe for you all.

RideOnTime

"Please refrain from dope chat.

Best way to police this is for all contributors to not rise to the bait. Don't reply to it.

If you want to discuss it, find a relevant thread and add to it or start a new one.

Some off topic fun is always welcome but it should not derail the thread."

What is all this nonsense. This is an internet thread. We must not 'derail' the thread! How can you derail a thread. Some fun is welcome - SOME fun - oooh not too much - you'rE having too much fun.

Someone please post some pictures of dead animals and children with horrific injuries - to ensure we're ABSOLUTELY NOT HAVING ANY FUN. This is not FUN (you heard me). If you want FUN look elsewhere. Look at my face - I'm laughing - NO. This is not fun.

I just have a sense somewhere someone is reading this in a light-hearted manner. STOP. GO CUT OFF A LIMB.

goonz

Above The Cows wrote:

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

goonz wrote:

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

Carlton is in an interesting mood today:

Carlton Kirby ‏@carltonkirby 4m
Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you see him without an erection, make him a sandwich...It's Crap Gag Friday! Tag all jokes #CGF


Commentary should be even worse than usual then.

Guy clearly needs to get laid.

The thought of Carlton Kirby... Where is the mind bleach. :shock:

http://mindbleach.org/

Is that the last cat left, seeing as every time someone starts a thread on Sky a cat dies? Sorry, sorry off topic, off topic. I'm trying to find a recipe for you all.

Yes please post a pic of some mouldy cheese...

above_the_cows

*WARNING*

ATC's Off Topic Tarte Tatin

The finish of today's stage is in the Department of Cher.



And one of the most popular patisserie treats from this Department is the famous Tarte Tatin. Just like every lemon should want to end its days in either a Torte di Nonna or my gin and tonic, every pomme should want to end its life in a Tarte Tatin. Boy do the French know what to do with their pommes.

Tarte Tatin

Serves 6

7 medium apples: 4 Cox, 3 Granny Smith
200g white sugar
50g butter
175g ready-made shortcrust pastry, life is too short to make your own pastry.

1. Peel, halve and core the apples, then put in the fridge, uncovered, for 24 hours.

2. Put the sugar into a 20cm heavy-based ovenproof frying pan along with 50ml water and leave to soak for a couple of minutes, then cook over a medium heat until golden and fudgy. Take off the heat and stir in the butter, and a pinch of salt, until well combined, then carefully arrange the apples in the pan, round-side down, bearing in mind the caramel will be very hot, and put back on the heat – you may need to cut some of the apples into smaller pieces to fill in the gaps. Cook for 5 minutes, then take off the heat and allow to cool completely.

3. Pre-heat the oven to 200C. Roll out the pastry to 5mm thick, and cut out a circle slightly larger than your pan. Put back into the fridge to rest.

4. Put the pastry on top of the pan and tuck in the edges around the fruit. Bake for about 30 minutes until the pastry is golden, then remove from the oven. Allow to cool for 5 minutes, then place a plate, slightly larger than the pan, on top and then, very carefully, using oven gloves, invert the tart on to the plate. Best served warm, with crème fraîche.

Et voilà!

RideOnTime

Tarte Tatin...

LUSH.

RideOnTime

goonz wrote:

TimB34 wrote:

In fact, that little meander is very odd.

Following the route on Google Streetview shows that the roads at the top of the triangle are tiny - typical French village back roads.

Unless there are roadworks on the three-lane Av Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, it just seems to be avoiding taking this roundabout head-on:

So that tasty looking meander is actually just a little roundabout. Still with the pace the teams will be going could get messy.

So this is right near the finish.

The whole peleton going full tilt and bam.

Any bunny-hoppers to jump it...

goonz

RideOnTime wrote:

Any bunny-hoppers to jump it...

Cavs a tidy bunny hopper, at least he cant blame losing the stage to that.

Macaloon

Tartan Tarts. HUGE fan.

I just got ripped, on some fine Columbian, with LL over on the 'How not to suck at Spoiler Threads' thread. What follows is his fault.

RideOnTime

goonz wrote:

RideOnTime wrote:

Any bunny-hoppers to jump it...

Cavs a tidy bunny hopper, at least he cant blame losing the stage to that.

Yes he did a fine hop over a roundabout the other day to rejoin the peleton didn't he - had a clear view of the road ahead then.

Yellow Peril

Right I'm going for a turbo. I've opened windows on both sides of the room. Should I worry about crosswinds?

Macaloon

Yellow Peril wrote:

Right I'm going for a turbo. I've opened windows on both sides of the room. Should I worry about crosswinds?

Put your nose in the wind, for once.

hammerite

A little OT, but it is food related. Shameless C&P from Cyclingnews.....

The Tour is one big sausage festival

Television audiences just do not get to experience the full spectacle that is the Tour de France. Absent from the home view is the publicity caravan that precedes the race, tossing the occasional treat to the spectators all along the route over the three weeks of racing.

Lemonde.fr's Tour blog today featured a young caravan hostess named Elodie, who hucks meat at the fans from the Cochonou truck. A total of almost half a million mini-salami - or nine tons of sausage - are distributed along the route.

But it's not all fun, games and savory treats: "Sometimes, especially in the mountains, people are so keen to get hold of the goodies, they may pounce on the car. It's impressive, they take risks. And if they don't get their sausage, they may throw various things at us. The nicest is water. Sometimes it's beer; sometimes stones."

Another member of the Cochonou caravan revealed that the caravan has to keep moving when they get to the mountains: "If you stop they will take everything - your goodies, your glasses. One year in the Pyrenees, the Basque fans waited above the entrance of a tunnel and they began to piss when the caravan arrived. We were greeted by a curtain of piss. We had to pass through covering our eyes and mouths."

See? It's not just about Mark Cavendish.

LeicesterLad

Macaloon wrote:

Tartan Tarts. HUGE fan.

I just got ripped, on some fine Columbian, with LL over on the 'How not to suck at Spoiler Threads' thread. What follows is his fault.

This can't be true As I don't *usually* start on the herb until early evening...

disgruntledgoat

hammerite wrote:

A little OT, but it is food related. Shameless C&P from Cyclingnews.....

The Tour is one big sausage festival

Television audiences just do not get to experience the full spectacle that is the Tour de France. Absent from the home view is the publicity caravan that precedes the race, tossing the occasional treat to the spectators all along the route over the three weeks of racing.

Lemonde.fr's Tour blog today featured a young caravan hostess named Elodie, who hucks meat at the fans from the Cochonou truck. A total of almost half a million mini-salami - or nine tons of sausage - are distributed along the route.

But it's not all fun, games and savory treats: "Sometimes, especially in the mountains, people are so keen to get hold of the goodies, they may pounce on the car. It's impressive, they take risks. And if they don't get their sausage, they may throw various things at us. The nicest is water. Sometimes it's beer; sometimes stones."

Another member of the Cochonou caravan revealed that the caravan has to keep moving when they get to the mountains: "If you stop they will take everything - your goodies, your glasses. One year in the Pyrenees, the Basque fans waited above the entrance of a tunnel and they began to wee-wee when the caravan arrived. We were greeted by a curtain of wee-wee. We had to pass through covering our eyes and mouths."

See? It's not just about Mark Cavendish.

I was just about to put exactly that up... Gold.

hammerite

disgruntledgoat wrote:

hammerite wrote:

A little OT, but it is food related. Shameless C&P from Cyclingnews.....

The Tour is one big sausage festival

Television audiences just do not get to experience the full spectacle that is the Tour de France. Absent from the home view is the publicity caravan that precedes the race, tossing the occasional treat to the spectators all along the route over the three weeks of racing.

Lemonde.fr's Tour blog today featured a young caravan hostess named Elodie, who hucks meat at the fans from the Cochonou truck. A total of almost half a million mini-salami - or nine tons of sausage - are distributed along the route.

But it's not all fun, games and savory treats: "Sometimes, especially in the mountains, people are so keen to get hold of the goodies, they may pounce on the car. It's impressive, they take risks. And if they don't get their sausage, they may throw various things at us. The nicest is water. Sometimes it's beer; sometimes stones."

Another member of the Cochonou caravan revealed that the caravan has to keep moving when they get to the mountains: "If you stop they will take everything - your goodies, your glasses. One year in the Pyrenees, the Basque fans waited above the entrance of a tunnel and they began to wee-wee when the caravan arrived. We were greeted by a curtain of wee-wee. We had to pass through covering our eyes and mouths."

See? It's not just about Mark Cavendish.

I was just about to put exactly that up... Gold.

They'd either drunk a lot or were on some kind of p"iss relay system to keep going for so long!

above_the_cows

Seriously what is wrong with some people? Who wants a free sausage that much? I know, I know, booze.

Anyway posted elsewhere but I'll get it in here too, to give you all time to learn the words before Stage 18:

Schatje mag ik je voto...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbSDVyBZbqM

ddraver

Seeing as nothing's happening...

Good news for Smithy and Big Bean as I lost it with geology today (AtC you ll appreciate this too)

We were discussing how we re going to categorise the rocks from Algeria (Depositional Environment) and I suggested a Sub-aerial channel (as opposed to marine). Our chief Geologist piped up with well that could mean it was Deposited on Mars...

Fffffflipping heck I nearly punched him! Seriously, we can't even agree what Planet we re on now? We have a law student intern in for the Summer and he was just sat their open mouthed at our "discussion"