Stage 15 of the Tour de France was a transition stage, nearly 170 km long with 2308m of climbing. This Tour de France Stage 15 recap covers the hilly race that was primed for a breakaway or strong puncheurs. As the Tour heads east towards the Alps for the final week I was also excited for an excuse to try a dish that I’ve always loved: tarte au citron.
Stage Recap
This was another hectic and chaotic Tour de France stage. Stage 15 did result in a strong breakaway but it only formed after a crash created splits in the peloton. This crash, paired with three short but challenging categorized climbs meant the breakaway had real breathing room to fight for the stage.
Most teams had some riders in one of the groups ahead of the peloton, but the front breakaway featured familiar names: Victor Campenaerts, Tim Wellens, and Captain America (aka Quinn Simmons.)
Wellens, Belgian road race champion and one of Pogačar’s main domestique’s has shown he is in great shape. He broke away at 40 km to go and was never seen by the break again. He wins the stage marking the fifth win for UAE Emirates. That means 1 in 3 stages so far have been won by UAE.
Heading into the final week, 15 teams still haven’t gotten a stage win. Looking at top 10 in the GC and the other competitions there are 5 or 6 teams that really haven’t gotten anything out of the Tour yet.
What’s left of the tour? There are three more high mountain stages to come, one more hilly stage, and two flat-ish stages. So teams are running out of opportunities to fight for their win in this year’s Tour because Pogačar is the favorite for at least two more of those mountain stages.
The Dish
For my tarte au citron (lemon tart) I once again went with a David Lebovitz recipe and it was delicious! I have made a couple of custard-y pies before, but this was my first time doing this method and making a tarte au citron.
The pastry case was surprisingly easy to make although it did suffer some cracks. I found it to be an unusual method, but I don’t know how it compares to other techniques. I heated the butter with sugar and water in the oven until the butter started browning and then I whisked in flour to make the dough, then blind baked for 15 minutes.
The custard was challenging to make – I was so scared it was going to end up like scrambled eggs. But after stirring for ages it thickened up and became nice and smooth. After a 5-minute bake to just finish setting the custard it was ready to chill.
I think this came out pretty close to perfect. I would for sure make it again although I would be open to experimenting with different pastry cases. Not that I had an issue with this one, I just didn’t think it brought a whole lot to the party either (at least compared to the delciousness of a graham cracker crust with key lime pie.)
Reflections
Heading into the final rest day of the Tour feels bittersweet! On one hand a lot of the GC action feels like it’s behind us. However with epic climbs like Mont Ventoux and this year’s queen stage – a trio of “beyond category” climbs that ends on Col de la Loze – there is also certainly going to be plenty of excitement still to come.
On Tuesday, right after the rest day, comes Mont Ventoux. The stage profile is pretty wild, because it’s flat for roughly 150 km before shooting up for the 16 km climb that is Mont Ventoux. It’s a profile that reminds me a lot of the Colle delle Finestre stage of this year’s Giro. That was an exciting stage to watch so I hope Mont Ventoux delivers similar drama.
Want to catch up on the state of the GC battle before the final week? Read my latest post.