Stage 10 of the Tour de France and it is a 148.1km long hill race that starts in Morzine les Ports due Soleil (France) and ends in Megève (France)
The Map
Sights and points of interest along the route
Today's start town is a ski resort but back in 1181 the area was part of a grange that belonged to the Cistercian Monks of Aulps Abbey, 7km away from Morzine. A grange was basically land owned by the monks and farmed by lay-brothers who reared livestock and cultivated the land which provided food, clothing, utensils and building materials to the abbey. From 18th to 20th centuries slate quarries provided money before winter tourism took over from about 1930.
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| Morzine |
Locally there is Morzine Village with its interesting old buildings and Les Dérèches Park a large green space what offers horse ridge, adventure trails and much more. As they start today's race one of the first things to see is the remains of Aulps Abbey, one of the most important monasteries in medieval Savoy and the buildings were all but destroyed in 1823 and until 1998 it was still a farm but is now a place of historical recreation telling the story of life as a monk as it would have been back then.
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| Aulps Abbey remains |
The cyclists pass La Baume, Lake Jotty and Jotty Dam and Devils Bridge Gorge near La Vernaz and then onto Publier, a former spa town on the shores of Lake Geneva and Thonon-les-Bains and 14th century Château de Ripaille and 2km away there Château d'Allinges-Vieux and Château D'Allinges-Neuf, which were built in the 10th century before being dismantled in the 18th century.
Reyvroz and Chablais Geopark are next along the route followed by Onnion, with its 19th century Saint-Maurice Church built on the site of a primitive church and has a 18th century bell. Onto Saint-Jeoire and Beauregard Castle, which has endured much history and belonged to one family for more than 8 centuries before becoming a religious building. Thyrez and Cluses are the next towns on the route, with the later being renowned for its watchmaking and screw-cutting.
The next major town is Sallanches, which was all but completely destroyed by fire in 1840. 63 people died and all that was left standing was the church and 5 out of 273 houses. It was cleared and rebuilt, financed by King Charles-Albert of Savoy-Sardinia.
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| Sallanches |
Passy is the next place on todays route, where Marie Curie died 29th June 1934 suffering the effects of too much exposure to radiation. Saint-Gervais-Les-Bains is a spa and ski resort and then onto picturesque Combloux with its St Nicholas Church.
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| Combloux |
The race ends in Megève, which is a well known ski resort near to Mont Blanc and featured in the 1963 film Charade when Audrey Hepburn's character, Regina Lampert, met Cary Grants character, Peter Joshua. It also featured in the 1969 film Downhill Racer starring Robert Redford and Gene Hackman.
Who Won the Stage and Who Won What Jersey
The Stage winner is Magnus Cort Nielsen for EF Education - Easypost/USA
The Yellow Jersey won by Tadej Pogacar for UAE Team Emirates.
The Green Jersey won by Wout van Aert for Jumbo-Visma.
The Polka Dot Jersey won by Simon Geschke for Cofidis/FRA.
The White Jersey won by Tadej Pogacar for UAE Team Emirates.
Combatif Award won by Alberto Bettiol for EF Education - Easypost/USA
Leading team: Ineos-Grenadiers
The Challenge: It wouldn't be a Tour de Fleece without some cryptic or tenuous link; and this is what we present to you today! The race leaves its rest spot of Morzine les Portes du Soleil and winds its way to Megève, known as a luxury ski resort. Megève is twinned with Oberstdorf in Germany within which you will find Richenbach. Funnily enough there is another Richenbach in Switzerland where the detective Sherlock Holmes tussled with Moriarty before going over the Richenbach Falls. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle named this short story 'The final Problem'. If you've followed this, you deserve a biscuit!
Today's challenge is to spin something that has been problematic and difficult for you - wrestle with your fibre nemesis on the precipice of the Falls!
Suggested Fibre: No suggested fibre other than your nemesis
What I did
I have a fair amount of silk that I've been putting off spinning but most of it is actually smaller amounts of many, many colours and are part of my "ingredients box" for use in my own blends. I do have a fibre advent calendar from a few years ago that is a "luxury" braid of fibre with colour co-ordinating silk. Silk is very slippery to spin and also very fine and one day I will tackle it but its just too hot and humid right now.
The other fibre I've been putting off is some faux cashmere that I've had a while and for the double whammy of it being my nemesis, one of the braids is pink so I will spin this. Faux Cashmere is very soft and is actually 100% Nylon.
It is more of a delicate pink leaning towards lilac with just a couple of small areas of a more vivid pink so I the hope it that is spins up more of a soft pinky lilac. I folded the length of the braid in half to find the mid-point and then pulled it apart at that point and then pre-drafted each half separately. It is very fine and floaty, not as bad as silk but bad enough. Please excuse the sexy crocs, they are very comfortable, especially for spinning.
The finished yarn is fingering weight (4ply in old UK money) and is 100g/229m and is super soft and a bit more pink than these photos make it out to be and in terms of the TdF length calculations is 687m - 2 singles plus the plied length = 3 x finished yarn length.
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