Quickly, we will deal with last week’s quiz.  Instead of restating the entire question, you can check it out HERE.  Basically, I asked what innovation, started just before the turn of the last century enabled many more growers to become wine makers.  As Talk-a-Vino correctly surmised, it was the introduction of the Wine Cooperatives.  This enabled even the smallest grape grower to make his/her own wine without the need to purchase the very expensive equipment to do so.  Today, just over half of all the wine produced in France comes out of cooperatives.

As for the extra credit, the photo of Mailly Champagne was the clue (at least in my mind) as it is a large cooperative in my favorite wine region.  The U.S. counterpart (at least for me) is the Crush Pad concept where anybody can become a wine maker by purchasing fruit and ‘renting’ the production equipment.

On to this week’s quiz:

As the site boldly pronounces, I am the ‘drunken cyclist’.  Up until now, 91.3% of the content (I calculated it–one of my three passions is math, after all) has been focused on the ‘drunken’ side of things–specifically on wine.  I decided to change things up this week, for the sake of maintaining some sort of ‘balance’ (yes, I know I have a long way to go–thanks for pointing that out).

I bought my first ‘real’ bike shortly after graduating from college largely due to Greg Lemond (see this story).  Shortly thereafter, cable television started broadcasting the Tour de France on an increasingly regular basis.  As some of you know, I was a bicycle tour guide in France for several years and that first year touring, I made sure to catch at least one stage of the Tour de France.  I will never forget–it was 1994 and I made my way down to the Champs Elysées to see the final stage of Miguel Indurain’s fourth Tour victory.

Miguel Indurain (letour.fr)

That day, the stage started in Marne-la-Valée, home to the then relatively new Disneyland Paris and made its way, as is tradition, onto the Champs-Elysées in the center of Paris.  For a while, it looked like the stage would be won by Frankie Andreu, a fellow Michigander (whom I have since met on a couple of occasions).  Eventually, a Frenchman, Eddy Seigneur won the stage, and even though I was screaming loudly for my compatriot, Eddy was the cousin of one of my co-workers at the bike touring company (Salut, Michel!), so I let it pass.

Le Tour 2012 (letour.fr)

If you are even a passing fan of the Tour, you really must go and experience at least one stage.  And if you can only ever go and see one, go to the Champs–it is a spectacle that you will likely never forget.  People are lined 6 (or more) deep along the most famous boulevard in the world and they all seem to be completely enthralled with the race.

Le Tour in Paris (letour.fr)

I was completely smitten by the event–it was overwhelming, engaging, and intoxicating all in the same breath.  After that Sunday in 1994, I became a bit of a student of ‘le Grand Boucle’ (the French nickname for the Tour) and read everything I could about the history of the race.

Wikipedia.com

I was particularly interested in the formative years, back at the turn of the last century.  Seeing that the the Tour de France started over a hundred years ago, many have forgotten why the race started in the first place.  In fact, the race would likely never had occurred had there not been some underlying social forces.  Those forces were less than altruistic, and that brings us to today’s question:

Which of the following was essentially at the base of the creation of the Tour de France?

A. Anglophobia

B. A growing Anti- Muslim sentiment

C. Anti-semitism

D. A fear of modernization, essentially Anti-automobile

Extra credit: What was the connection to Alsace?