Le Tour - 11th stage through the vines

Picking machine in the vineyards of Quincy: October 2008

Vines@Montigny

Today the Tour starts in Vatan and makes its way through a number of the Central Loire vineyards – starting with Reuilly, next Quincy before turning northwards Menetou-Salon and then through Saint-Cérols, Montigny (beginning of AC Sancerre), Vinon, Saint-Bouize and across La Loire into Pouilly-sur-Loire. They will, of course, at Pouilly, be crossing La Loire at its halfway point before heading northwards to Sully-la-Tour where they leave the vines behind for the finish at Saint-Fargeau and, hopefully, another victory for Mark Cavendish.

Montigny

La Nouvelle République has some suggestions of good places to catch today's stage. Here is the route.

From Sancerre looking up La Loire towards Pouilly-sur-Loire

La Loire at Pouilly with a further 496 km to go to the Atlantic but the riders in the Tour have considerably longer to pedal before they reach Paris.

Update

15.20: the race has now passed through Pouilly-sur-Loire with a couple of riders around 3.20 minutes ahead of the bunch. Still looks like a bunch sprint is the most likely outcome. The finish is slightly uphill and quite tricky, so not an easy one for Mark Cavendish to win.

Crossing La Loire – Telegraph photo.

Pretty sure that I caught sight on the video streaming of some members of the Confrérie des Baillys de Pouilly among the spectators as the Tour passed through Pouilly. Not sure of the correct spelling of this confrèrie as sometimes it is Baillis de Pouilly-sur-Loire.

Update
17.15: Mark Cavendish wins and gets back the Green Jersey!