This is the Beaureagard Castle which nestles on the tree covered slopes of Saint Jeoire, on the route taken by the Tour de France 2010 to get from Station des Rousses to Morzine Avoriaz on the 9th day (Stage 8) of the tour. Around the year 1000, Benedictines settled in the village where they built a chapel dedicated to St George, who gave his name to the village. The castle was built in the 13th century by a family of Scottish origin and remained in the same family until 2004, when its owner gave it to the Annecy diocese. It now hosts a religious community. My drawing is approximately 12 cm x 9.5 cm and is based on a reference photograph by Cyr0z.
The distance covered by the riders was 189 km (around 117 miles) but more importantly this was a mountain stage with two category 1 climbs. Mountain climbs are rated for their difficulty based on steepness, the length of the climb, and their position on the day's route. The easiest climbs are rated 4 and the the category number decreases as the difficulty rating increases. Category 1 climbs are therefore considered very difficult, but there are some climbs which are considered even tougher than category 1 climbs. Such climbs were described as being outside or beyond classification. In 1979 it was decided to call such climbs as hors categorie or Category H climbs. The two category 1 climbs of the day were one of 14.3 km length at 6.8%, and 13.6 km at 6.1% and the difficulty was compounded by the fact that they came towards the end of the day's route when the cyclists were already exhausted.
The stage was won by Andy Schleck. Sylvain Chavanel surrendered the yellow jersey (indicative of the person leading the Tour de France) to Cadel Evans. The green jersey for the points classification stayed with Thor Hushovd, and likewise the polka jersey for the mountain classification, and the white jersey for the best young (under 25 years) rider stayed with Jerome Pineau and Andy Schleck respectively.
The distance covered by the riders was 189 km (around 117 miles) but more importantly this was a mountain stage with two category 1 climbs. Mountain climbs are rated for their difficulty based on steepness, the length of the climb, and their position on the day's route. The easiest climbs are rated 4 and the the category number decreases as the difficulty rating increases. Category 1 climbs are therefore considered very difficult, but there are some climbs which are considered even tougher than category 1 climbs. Such climbs were described as being outside or beyond classification. In 1979 it was decided to call such climbs as hors categorie or Category H climbs. The two category 1 climbs of the day were one of 14.3 km length at 6.8%, and 13.6 km at 6.1% and the difficulty was compounded by the fact that they came towards the end of the day's route when the cyclists were already exhausted.
The stage was won by Andy Schleck. Sylvain Chavanel surrendered the yellow jersey (indicative of the person leading the Tour de France) to Cadel Evans. The green jersey for the points classification stayed with Thor Hushovd, and likewise the polka jersey for the mountain classification, and the white jersey for the best young (under 25 years) rider stayed with Jerome Pineau and Andy Schleck respectively.
You do have a magic way with a pen!!
ReplyDeleteI really like the way you've done the back-ground hillside rising up.
ReplyDeleteMarmsk, & kb...thank you for the comments. I was quite pleased myself with the way the background hill turned out and I am glad that you like it too.
ReplyDelete