Stage 7 of the Tour de France and it is a 176.3km long mountain race that starts in Tomblaine and ends in La Super Planche des Belles Filles (France)
The Map
Sights and points of interest along the route
At the start town of Tombaline there is an area of 17 hectares that have been declared as a Natural Sensitive Area not far from Tomblaine town centre where they hope to preserve an exceptional fauna and flora, including 144 animal species. The Nancy-Essey Aeronautics Museum with its collection of restored Jet Fighter aircraft from 1948-1984. There is also Tomblaine Farm, where Louis Pasteur stayed and worked on his project to pasteurise milk.
Along the route is the town of Art-sur-Meurthe, reputed to have maybe been the hometown of Jacques of Arc, Joan of Arc's father, but this cannot be proven. The Charterhouse of Bosserville is a former Carthusian monastery (1666-1901) with a chapel at its heart. It is now a vocational school. There is also an 18th century manor house, Castle Art-sur-Meurthe nearby, which is a venue for cultural and festive entertainment.
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| Charterhouse of Bosserville |
Other towns on the route are Dombasle-sur-Meurthe, Vitrimont and Lunéville, with the later being know for its embroidery which uses a mixture of pearls and sequins. There is the Château de Lunéville, rebuilt in the early 1700's and burned down 7 times, the last time being 2nd/3rd January 2003 and restoration work has not quite finished. Quite a way along the route from here is Gerbéviller Castle, built in the 17th century and still inhabited by Royalty, currently Prince Charles of Arenberg, of the House of Arenberg.
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| An example of Lunéville embroidery |
The race then passes through the 13th century town of Rambervilliers with a town hall, Sainte-Lucy Castle and Saint-Libaire Church. Next is the ancient castle town of Bruyères, known for its October 1944 battle against the Germans during WWII. The small village of Champ-le-Duc with its 12th century Romanesque Notre-Dame Church and onto the town of Gerardmer and its nearby lake. The mountain village of La Bresse is in the heart of the Ballons des Vosages Regional Nature Park with Lac des corbeaux (Raven's Lake), which is 600m long, 200m wide and 27 deep. The riders also pass Cornimont, Ventron, Le Menil and Servance-Miellin, where you will find the Church of Our Lady of Assumption, Le Saut de L'Ognon (a dam) and an area of natural beauty Plateau des mille étangs (Plateau of a Thousand Ponds).
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| Plateau des mille étangs |
The race continues through Fresse, Plancher-Bas and Plancher-les-Mines, the later of which is so called because of the silver mines that made it famous, and ends today at the summit of the mountain of La Super Planche des Belles Filles, which loosely translates as "the beautiful girls board" and is so named after a 1636 legend that states that young women would throw themselves into the water from the top of the mountain rather than suffer the abuse of Swedish attackers. Locally there are the glassblowers of La Rochère, a local cherry brandy (Kirsch) brewery and Ray-sur-Saone Castle, which is currently being restored.
Who Won the Stage and Who Won What Jersey
The Stage winner is Tadej Pogacar for UAE Team Emirates
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 Magnus Cort Nielsen for EF Education-Easypost/USA.
The White Jersey won by Tadej Pogacar for UAE Team Emirates.
Combatif Award won by Simon Geschke for Cofidis/FRA
Leading team: Ineos-Grenadiers
The Challenge: The starting point of today's stage is Tomblaine, but our interest lies 3 miles away in Nancy. This historic prefecture's heraldry shows a thistle, a plant which is quite popular in heraldry. It represents a strength and assertation that if you mess with a thistle, you're going to feel the thorns. We've found the coat of arms for Huddersfield and, naturally, it involves sheep - much squishier than a thistle and right up our street!
Today's challenge is multi-faceted! Spin a plant fibre (we don't advise thistle, maybe have a go with nettle!) OR colours that you associate with thistles 💜💚. The second part is to do a little research and find out what the coat of arms/crest is for a place that is of interest to you. We'd love to see what you find, but remember that you don't need to share personal details.
Suggested Fibre: If you've bought the special TDF blend Thistle-do, now is the time to use it!
What I did
Well, I am well aware of the coat of arms of my city, Birmingham, the female figure represents arts & crafts and the male figure represents industrialism.
So, the spinning. Well yes, I did buy Thistle-Do. It's 80% Shetland Wool, 20% Himalayan Nettle the colours are purple, green and white.
I decided not to pre-draft this one, just spin it from the end as I thought that way I could just follow each colour as it drafted in and have larger splodges of each colour. I also thought that I was spinning it quite fine, but it turns out that this was not the case as its quite a heavy, dense yarn and not as soft as I had hoped it would be. Its not nasty but I think I could have spun it different and got a softer finished yarn.
The final yarn is double-knit, possibly pushing towards worsted weight, but definitely a heavier double-knit weight. It's 97g/160m which in terms of the TdF length calculations is 480m - 2 singles plus the plied length = 3 x finished yarn length.
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