Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2022 Stage 14 - Saint-Étienne to Mende

Stage 14 of the Tour de France and it is a 192.5km long hilly race that starts in Saint-Étienne and ends in Mende.

The Map

Sights and points of interest along the route

Saint-Étienne was the finish town yesterday and there's nothing new to say about that, I covered it in yesterday's blog post so we might as well just get going on the route and the first town is Roche-la-Molière, which has a fortified castle of the same name.  A little way on the route is Firminy and it is quite a way before they reach La Séauve-sur-Semène with its 12th century La Sauve-Bénite Abbey, which was sold during the French Revolution and became a textile factory before becoming housing about 50 years ago.  The next towns on the route are Grazac, Yssingeaux and then Rosières, the later of which has a canyon of multicoloured clay called Corboeuf Ravines.

Corboeuf Ravines

At around 75km along today's route is Lavoûte-sur-Loire where there is Lavoûte-Polignac castle, a former medieval castle built with local stone and was the Polignac family's resting place, whereas Château de Polignac, some 11km further along today's route, was a fortress and the Polignac family's place of war.  Le Puy en Velay is famous for it's green lentils and also for it's lace and lace is still made there today at the National Lace Conservatory Workshop.  At 97km the riders reach Saint-Christophe-sur-Dolaison with the 12th century church of Saint-Christophe.  The volcanic lake of Le Bouchet and then onto Saint-Haon, which has a church that has 4 bells, all bearing the name of a child of the village.

Le Bouchet Lake

Saint-Bonnet-Laval is next on the route and it only has a population of 250 and then another village, but a bit larger, is Grandieu that has a 12th century church, Saint-Martin Church, built entirely from granite.  Chateauneuf-de-Randon used to have a medieval castle but all that remains is a tower and then yet another small village is Pelouse and then Badaroux, birthplace of Joseph-Antoine Chaptal, a chemist who invented Chaptalization, which is a process that increases the alcohol content of wines by sugaring.

The final town is Mende, which once had a exceptionally large bell in the tower of the cathedral, .  It was 3.25m diameter, 2.75m high and 33mm thick and was said to have weighed 25 tons.  It was known as "non pareille", which means "like no other", and had rumours attached to it which included people with weak hearts taking refuge in cellars when it rang, mothers keeping children away from it in fear of bursting their eardrums and the clapper was said to make women fertile if they touched it.  The clapper was 2.2m long and weighed 470kg and is the only part of the bell that still remains after the bell itself was destroyed during the Wars of Religion in 1579.

Mende

Who Won the Stage and Who Won What Jersey

The Stage winner is Michael Matthews for Team Bikeexchange-Jayco/AUS.

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 Michael Matthews for Team Bikeexchange-Jayco/AUS.

Leading team: Ineos-Grenadiers

The Challenge: A hilly stages sees the cyclists finishing in Mende; a city that has been populated since 200BC and that, at one point, re-developed its industry wholly around sheep and wool.  We approve!  The colourful history also includes terrifying tales of the Beast of Gévaudan!.

We love a good story; now is your chance to regale everyone with your favourite legend/tale/piece of folklore.

Suggested Fibre:  Keeping with the theme we suggest something from our Folklore range.

What I did

I have two choices for my fibre today as I have both Charm and Riddle from the Folklore range.  Charm is in the purple range and Riddle is in the green range.  I couldn't decide so I put the names, one in each hand, mixed them up behind my back and had my youngest choose a hand.  Charm it is for today.

The Folklore range is 33.33% Merino, 33.33% Bamboo and 33.33% Tweed blend.

I simply broke the length of fibre in half across its length, pre-drafted and spun a single from each piece.  Unfortunately I forgot to take photos of the pre-drafted fibre so I don't have any nice photos of it.  The final yarn is fingering weight and 93g/247m which in terms of the TdF length calculations is 741m - 2 singles plus the plied length = 3 x finished yarn length.