Stage 8 of the Tour de France and it is a 186.3km long hilly race that starts in Dole (France) and ends in Lausanne (Switzerland)
The Map
Dole was developed during the 13th century along an ancient Roman road and mills and tanneries operated here until the beginning of the 20th century. Louis Pasteur was born 27th December 1822 in Dole. Although most famous for in the invention of pasteurisation, a way to treat milk and wine to stop bacterial contamination, he was not only a founder of Bacteriology and Microbiology but he also undertook a study into diseases of silkworms which were infecting large numbers of silkworms in the South of France and having a heavy impact on silk farmers, which then filtered down through the silk textile industry in this region. He came up with a process of checking for one particular disease, Pebrine, by sampling a number of chrysalises and if the number of corpuscles were low then it would be good to carry on reproducing from those moths. If the numbers were high then those moths would be destroyed taking the disease with them, stopping the infection from spreading and saving much of the silk industry from this disease. However, he was not able to solve the issue with Flacherie. There is a museum bearing his name at the house where he was born which is 8 rooms on two levels and documents his life and work.
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| The house where Louis Pasteur was born in 1822 |
There is also a museum of fine arts and archaeology, 16th century Notre-Dame de Dole Collegiate Church and 17th century Hôtel-Dieu de Dole, which was a hospital from the time it was built until 1973.
Todays race passes through the village of Mont-sous-Vaudrey and then through the town of Arbois, where there appears to be another house of Louis Pasteur, this time where he grew up since the age of 5 until he was 17 years old. He later inherited the house from his father in 1865. It is also a town famous for it's wines, which is hardly surprising given Louis Pasteur's work in preventing bacterial contamination in wine.
The route moves on to La Châtelaine with its castle ruins and then to Champagnole, followed by Syam. At Syam there is the Palladian Villa (or Syam Castle), which is built in a 16th century Italian style, parts of it are still being restored by it does host exhibitions and events. At Foncine-le-Bas is the Bief de la Ruine waterfall which comprises about 10 smaller drops in heights rather than one big drop, but it is still a waterfall. Next is the village of Morbier, famous for its cheese with a dark horizontal line through the middle, whose origins lies in the fact that the curd of the morning milking was protected by a little soot whilst waiting for the evening milking to form a whole cheese.
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| Morbier Cheese |
Just 2 km further along the route is Morez, which is close to the Swiss border and there is an eyewear museum here that houses all sorts of spectacles, including those of the Dali Lama and some Inuit glasses. Les Rousses is a ski resort town in France and is the last French town on todays route and has a 19th century stone built fort which, although it played no military role, was used right up until 1997 for training purposes in the handling of explosives by the commando training centre at the fort.
The race now moves into Switzerland and the first notable town is Le Chenit, home to several famous watchmakers. 5th century Abbey of Romainmôtier is nearby and is still in use. L'Abbaye village has a population of 1,300 and is 134km into todays race. Château de L'Isle is now a school and administration building for L'Isle. In the town of Cossonay is a rather imposing 11th century Temple of Cossonay before moving on to Échandens and then Saint-Sulpice. Charles Aznavour, famous singer, spent much of his later years in a house in Saint-Sulpice and there is an 11th century temple here too.
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| Saint-Sulpice Temple |
Ecublens is the place where Roger Federer's career really began. In Lausanne there is a new arts district known as Platforme 10 and within that are 3 museums housed in 2 buildings, Cantonal Museums of Fine Arts, Cantonal Museum of Design and Contemporary Arts and Photo Elysée with the later being one of the most important in the world relating to photography and holds several large collections, including that of Charlie Chaplin. In and around Lausanne, there is also the 12th century Lausanne Cathedral, the Rumine Palace and an Olympic museum, Lake Geneva and Mon-Repos Park.
Who Won the Stage and Who Won What Jersey
The Stage winner is Wout van Aert for Jumbo-Visma.
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 Mattia Cattaneo for Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl
Leading team: Ineos-Grenadiers
The Challenge: From Dole to Lausanne it is a bit of a hilly day today and you can guarantee that none of the cyclists are on those fancy electric bikes! Lausanne is not only the Olympic HQ but is very, very keen on sustainability and green tourism.
Today's challenge is to spin with a recycled fibre. These are very different fibres to spin and it hard to imagine what they once were! If you're spinning from your stash, why not try using odds and ends of fluff that you didn't have the heart to throw away - maybe there is a bag of scraps that is crying out for use!
Suggested Fibre: We suggest either Sari Silk or Recycled Plastic
What I did
I do have a few bumps of Sari Silk in different colours but I prefer to use it as an accent/ingredient in my own blends. I don't want to spin it on its own. The only blend I have that contains Sari Silk is one of the monthly fibres I had when I was part of a subscribed fibre club. That will have to do for today, at least it gets it spun up.
I just found the mid-point of the length of fibre and pulled it apart to make two shorter lengths and pre-drafted it.
I chose to spin it as fine as I could, which wasn't easy given that there are great lumps of Sari Silk in the blend, but I was able to thin some of the bigger ones out a bit. The finished yarn is fingering weight, 62.5% Corriedale, 25% Sari Silk, 12.5 Mulberry Silk and is 100g/286m which in terms of the TdF length calculations is 858m - 2 singles plus the plied length = 3 x finished yarn length.
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