Tour de France 2017 ***SPOILERS***

[MacB]

Ok, something I've been puzzling over since yesterday, who is prettier, Happy Marcel or Sad Marcel. It seems such a short time since the radiant beauty of his winners face was lighting up my screen. But those eyes when it all went wrong, if they didn't move you then you're also capable of clubbing baby seals.

What think you all?

 

[Crackle]

Seal clubber here

 

[mjr]

Seal clubber here

+1

 

[brommers]

I missed @brommers post. It's the prize for being first rider to cross the highest point in the Tour - equivalent to the Giro's Cima Coppi. This year, as in so many other years, it was the Galibier, at 2642m.

I'm not sure if any of the other climbs they regularly use in the Tour are higher. The Col de l'Iseran is 2770m but they don't go there so often.

For comparison, the summit of the Izoard is 400m lower in altitude at 2360m.

I know he won $5000, but what was the 'souvenir' prize?

 

[Shadow]

I know he won $5000, but what was the 'souvenir' prize?

It is called the 'Souvenir Henri Desgrange' after the Tour's founder. But I'm sure you knew that. 'Souvenir' means to remember en français.

 

[brommers]

But wasn't there a physical memento? - something you can put on your mantelpiece, like a years supply of Salmon?

 

[smutchin]

'Souvenir' in this case is more accurately translated into English as 'memorial', as in the 'Henri Desgrange memorial'.

There's a physical monument to Henri Desgrange at the top of the Tourmalet, which was the first high mountain pass to feature in the Tour, back in 1910.

I don't think you get many salmon at that altitude.

(As an aside, souvenir is what my French professor Philip Thody would have called a faux ami - indeed, he wrote a whole book on this subject, co-authored with another of my tutors at Leeds, Dr Howard Evans.)

 

[roadrash]

She also seemed very blasé - dismissive, even - about the second stage. She certainly didn't seem impressed or excited at the prospect. Nor was it a consideration in her tactical thinking today - she was going for the stage win regardless.

so blaze in fact, the she referred to it as ... oh yeah, that "thing" on Saturday

 

[andrew_s]

Souvenir Henri Desgrange in English is Henry Desgrange Memorial prize

It's awarded at the Galibier so often that they put his monument there, on the Lauteret side on the first bend after coming out of the tunnel.

[edit]
The race prize was first awarded in 1947; the monument was put up in 1949

 

[brommers]

I don't think you get many salmon at that altitude

That was supposed to be a feeble reference to one of the Norwegian races

 

[smutchin]

It's awarded at the Galibier so often that they put his monument there, on the Lauteret side on the first bend after coming out of the tunnel.

Of course, you're right. I was getting confused with the Jacques Goddet monument, which is on the Tourmalet. The Jacques Goddet prize is usually specifically for the Tourmalet and wasn't awarded this year.

 

[smutchin]

That was supposed to be a feeble reference to one of the Norwegian races

Yeah, I was trying to counter your feeble joke with an equally feeble one of my own.

 

[andrew_s]

Interestingly, the tour used the tunnel until 1976 (when it was closed due to disrepair), which will be why the Desgranges memorial isn't at the top.
http://www.cycling-challenge.com/col-du-galibier-a-brief-history/

 

[smutchin]

Apparently, Pierre Rolland is in the Tour this year. Who knew?

 

[MacB]

Apparently, Pierre Rolland is in the Tour this year. Who knew?

I'd missed that I thought his brother 'Pierre Rolland Out The Back' was the one riding this year.