Today’s post provides a stage 1 recap and an overview of the first meal I prepared for this year’s Tour: a carbonnade flamande (beef stew) with French fries. It’s Belgium meets France for the Grand Départ in Lille (pronounced L-eel, not L-ill.) To read more about what the remaining stages will offer be sure to check out my Tour de France overview.

The Stage

Highlights

Today was the opening stage of the 2025 Tour de France. It was a flat stage, a 185 km loop starting and ending in Lille. All things considered this was an “easy” stage save for the cross winds and first-day race nerves which led to a high-pace as the GC contenders tried to stay safe in the front of the peloton. Due to this, the peloton caught the early breakaway before the halfway point of the stage.

The high pace and cross winds created splits in the peloton called “echelons.” As a result Remco Evenepoel and Primož Rogliç (podium contenders) were caught in a second group behind the peloton, and main GC contenders Pogaçar and Vingegaard. Rogliç and Evenepoel lost 40 seconds by the end of the stage after time bonuses! A bad start for their GC hopes.

The three hills in today’s stage, were categorized as Category 4 climbs (the easiest category of climb in the tour.) They were included in the route for the sake of being able to assign the King of the Mountains (KOM) jersey tomorrow. In a sprint for the KOM on a cobbled climb, two riders crashed into each other right over the line. Both riders were OK (although probably kind of embarrassed.) Benjamin Thomas, a French rider on the French team Cofidis, eked out the win securing enough points for the first polka dot jersey.

Results

That was not the only crash. Filippo Ganna, an Italian time trial specialist on Ineos Grenadiers, crashed and abandoned due to a possible concussion. He would have been one of the favorites to win Stage 5 – so this was a big loss for team Ineos. Stefan Bissegger, also a TT specialist on Decathlon AG2R, also crashed and abandoned the race. There was also a small crash in the final 5 km that included Ben O’Connor, an Australian Rider on Jayco Alula – a GC top 10 contender. Time will tell how that crash affected him and his GC ambitions.

For the sprint finish, the reduced bunch from the echelons meant that Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) easily won the sprint. Alpecin-Deceuninck is fully focused on sprint stages and has one of the strongest teams for that purpose.

The Dish

Today’s dish was a carbonnade flammande, which is a Flemish beef and beer stew. It is a Belgian dish but is also a regional dish of Lille, given the proximity of Lille to Belgium. The Lille metro-area is the 4th largest in France but was notably part of French Flanders, so the Flemish influence is quite strong.

The carbonnade was simple enough but time consuming. I decided to cook it in the pressure cooker to make it as quick and hands-off as possible, especially since the pommes frites promised to be time consuming. The beef was cooked with onions and most notably a Belgian Tripel – a strong Belgian ale.

Normally when I make French fries at home I boil them first for the first cook and air-fry them for the second cook, resulting in a marginally healthier but less-crispy fry. But today was the grand départ of the Tour de France. So I went with the twice-fried French fry, which is obviously the most superior french fry.

Reflections

Everyone knows the big action is still to come but the crosswinds led to an exciting stage. Beyond the abandons, the GC gaps already have upped the stakes for the remaining stages of this year’s Tour. When a course profile like today’s is this exciting it bodes well for the stages to come.

As for the carbonnade flamande, it was really delicious, satisfying, hearty, but not overwhelming. I would definitely recommend making this on a Sunday when you have a few spare hours and then have leftovers for Monday or Tuesday. It went great with the fries – sort of poutine-style – but you could also pair it with any other starch like mashed potatoes, bread, or even rice.

I wasn’t feeling a heavy beer so paired the stew with a Pinot Noir from central/southern France that I had. It was a delicious Pinot and went really well with the dish.

So altogehter I think this made for a really strong start to the tour, both in terms of the stage and the dish!

A Bientôt!