Stage 12 of the Tour de France and it is a 165.1km long mountain race that starts in Briançon and ends in Alpe D'Huez and today's route retraces yesterday's route in reverse for about half of the route.
The Map
Sights and points of interest along the route
Briançon is in an area of wonderful natural beauty and is surrounded by numerous mountains and mountain passes and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its Vauban fortifications, of which there are many. There is the Fort of the Three Heads, Fort Dauphin and 18th century Collegiate Church of Notre-Dame-et-Saint-Nicolas. Schappe Park was part of a project in 1815 to convert dry quarries into oriental style gardens to include a lake with a Japanese bridge over, and island and a pagoda.
 |
| Roads near to Briançon |
So, yesterday's route in reverse is Le Monêtier-les-Bains, Museum of Sacred Art, Church of Notre-Dame d'Assomption, Galibier Pass, Valloire with its hay and straw sculptures, Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne, Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne with the Cathedral of St John the Baptist and now the route turns off onto a new place, Fontcourverte-la Toussuire then Saint-Jean-d'Arves, a family resort and then onto Saint-Sorlin-d'Arves and Saint-Saturnin Church. Next is Saint-Colomban-des-Villards and then Vaujany with Grand-Maison dam and then the village of Allemont, once home to a royal smelter using local ores, mostly silver.
 |
| Allemont |
Le Bourg d'Oisans is famous for its slate and minerals and then its onto La Garde-en-Oisans, an historic village documented since the early middle ages and close to the bell tower of Saint-Pierre Church, a former priory. The race ends in Alpe d'Huez, that hosts a film festival with the theme of "comedy" the only one that does in Europe. There is Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Church, the Archaeological site of Brandes which was a silver mining village back in the 12th century as well as a museum.
 |
| Alpe d'Huez |
Who Won the Stage and Who Won What Jersey
The Stage winner is Thomas Pidcock for Ineos-Grenadiers.
The Yellow Jersey won by Jonas Vingegaard for Jumbo-Visma
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 Thomas Pidcock for Ineos-Grenadiers.
Leading team: Ineos-Grenadiers
The Challenge: More mountains! But then, we wouldn't expect any less from the stunning Alps. Today's stage could be trickier than yesterdays with 21, yes twenty-one, hairpins! Apparently, this exact stage was done in 1986, lets hope they've resurfaced the road since then!
Seeing as the race will be so high, we thought we'd go for a different challenge today, just in case you need a bit of a break from spinning. Today's challenge is to take a picture of a skein (or bobbin, or ball, or whorl) of your hand spun at the highest point you can find. For extra biscuit privileges you can see if you can find a high point to spin at! We probably don't need to remind you, but you aren't Spiderman/woman, so please don't go hanging off any buildings or rickety looking things! (If you are Spiderman/woman, your secret is safe with us. (Extra follow on: if you could have one super power what would it be?)).
What I did
I don't have anything from the Alpine Range, which is 67% Merino, 33% Alpaca, nor can I get up high today so I won't be doing that part of the challenge either. I decided to use a braid of fibre from John Arbon Textiles, from their Alpaca Supreme range called Mr Smoke. It's 40% Merino, 40% Alpaca, 20% Mulberry Silk.
The fibre is so soft and silky and I couldn't wait to try it.
The colours muddied when spinning, which is absolutely fine with me as that creates a more even colour and tone throughout the yarn, which is neither blue nor grey but a mix of the two and is spun to sport weight and 109g/306m which in terms of the TdF length calculations is 918m - 2 singles plus the plied length = 3 x finished yarn length.
No comments:
Post a Comment