Edward Pickering
@edwardpickering
Author of Ronde and Yellow Jersey Club UWE Urban Planning MSc student Writing: Taiko: Running: Insta: @edwardpickering
It’s also part of the watershed between the Rhine and Rhône drainage systems. Rain that falls on one side of it goes to the North Sea, and rain that falls on the other goes to the Med. (Dark blue and light blue on the map.)
The Belfort Gap is the corridor of land through which, basically, armies used to head east or west during times of war, which in this part of world has happened a lot. (The alternative would be to go via the Jura or the Vosges, which is a bad idea.)
It’s also a place linked to the invention of two of cycling’s favourite things – bikes and photography, through the inventor Nicéphore Niépce. Niépce was a pioneer in photography, and he took the oldest surviving photograph, View from the Window at Le Gras. He also made a very early draisine bike.
The Saône is a tributary of the Rhône, so Chalon was on major roadways and waterways. It’s also not far from the Seine and the Loire, so it was easily accessible from France’s longest three rivers. For many years it was a major trading centre.
These days, Chalon-sur-Saône, where yesterday’s stage finished, is a fairly standard provincial French town. However, it’s been very prominent in years past. It was on the Via Agrippa, a major Roman road system, and it also benefitted from its position on the Saône.
Here is what’s considered the masterpiece of the Barbizon School – The Gleaners (1857) by Jean-François Millet. It provoked controversy because the art market consisted largely of the rich, and this painting portrayed the rural poor, which wasn’t a subject the rich were interested in.
Cirque de Gavarnie, one of the most beautiful places in France, at the Tour today. I read a little about it when I commissioned Pierre Carrey to write a feature for Rouleur about the Gave de Pau river, which flows through the Pyrenees, links many of its climbs and has its source above Gavarnie.
Exhibit C: me in 1986 wearing an era-appropriate lemon yellow/pastel grey Leo Gemelli v-neck and regulation flecky trousers from Top Shop.
Exhibit A: the photograph Graham mentions of Hinault and LeMond climbing Alpe d'Huez (on the cover of one of my favourite cycling books, which shows the saturated and bright colours of 1980s photography throughout). Look at it! Just look at it!
Here’s Gaston Phoebus, or Gaston III, 12th count of Foix. He made a cameo in my piece on yesterday’s stage. Quite a character, by all accounts. A warrior, hunter, author, polyglot and a shrewd operator in the febrile politics of 14th century France. edwardpickering.substack.com/p/tour-de-fr...
Toughest climb on today's stage is the Col de Montségur, upon which I once bonked during the Ariègoise sportive while trying to digest two Cœur de Lion mini Camemberts. A bad omen for UAE's rivals: the rocky outcrop upon which the ruined Château de Montségur stands is known locally as a 'pog'.
Final top 10 in three weeks might not look so different in terms of names to today's GC...
Niche cycling/gen-X/pedantry post www.cyclingweekly.com/racing/i-kee...
One of my local wards makes it into @iandunt.bsky.social's newsletter. This time I was actually happy with the result – FPTP usually works against progressives in Exeter. But anybody with eyes can see we need to change the voting system in the UK. iandunt.substack.com/p/local-elec...
One for the nerds: Kanazawa station, though it's decorative rather than structural.