FINHAUT-EMOSSON, Switzerland -- A gastronomical, sporting and cultural glance at Stage 17 of the Tour de France on Wednesday:REGION: The first of four legs in the Alps, the stage started in the Swiss capital of Bern and followed a 184.5 (114.6-mile) route over two major climbs to the Finhaut-Emosson power station in the canton of Valais near Mont Blanc.BAGUETTE AND BUTTER: Russian rider Ilnur Zakarin of the Katusha team won the stage with a late attack on the final climb after getting in an early breakaway. Race leader Chris Froome increased his lead in the overall standings. Froome, the 2013 and 2015 champion, now leads Bauke Mollema by 2:27 overall with Adam Yates third, 2:53 back.PLAT DU JOUR: Raclette. One of Switzerlands most famous dishes, raclette -- which derives from the French word meaning to scrape -- involves melting the surface of a wheel of semi-soft raclette cheese, then scraping the gooey part onto boiled potatoes, cured ham and other accompaniments. The local version is made with Raclette du Valais AOP, which is made with raw, unpasteurized cows milk and carries a special seal of approval.CULTURE: The Montreux Jazz Festival is held every July, just off the stage route on the shores of Lake Geneva. The 50th edition of the festival concluded last weekend following performances by PJ Harvey, Simply Red, Santana, Patti Smith and Quincy Jones.VIN DU JOUR: Petite Arvine. Grown in the Valais for at least 500 years, Petite Arvine white grapes are very popular along the valley from Sion to Martigny. The wines of the same name have delicious grapefruit aromas. Pairs perfectly with raclette cheese and small onions.SCIENCE: Construction of the Nant de Drance hydropower station in Finhaut-Emosson is slated to finish in 2018 at a cost of 2 billion Swiss Francs ($2 billion). The facility will use the elevation difference between the Vieux Emosson and Emosson reservoirs to produce an estimated output of 2.5 billion kilowatt hours per year.STAT OF THE DAY: 40. In kilometers per hour, the impressive average speed of Zakarin. It was 2 kilometers faster than the fastest estimate by race organizers.QUOTE OF THE DAY: One of the big differences is that all eight teammates of mine are focused on one goal. Chris Froome, discussing why Team Sky is so much stronger than every other squad.DESSERT: Abricots du Valais. Its high season for apricots in the Valais.NEXT ORDER: The race crosses back into France for Stage 18 on Thursday, a 17-kilometer (10.5-mile) individual time trial from Sallanches to Megeve. Its the Tours first mountain time trial since the 2004 race against the clock up lAlpe dHuez. Besides the flat opening four kilometers (2.5 miles) and a short descent at the finish, its entirely uphill.Minnesota Twins Gear . 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Weber had a goal and two assists, and Roman Josi scored the shootout winner to lift the Predators to a 4-3 win over the Flyers on Thursday night.This time, the Seattle Seahawks won -- and so did Las Vegas.The Seahawks used a last-second goal-line stand to beat the New England Patriots 31-24 Sunday night, capping a day full of underdog success stories and giving sportsbooks a little bit of revenge on one of their largest Super Bowl disappointments of the past.Underdogs covered the spread in nine of the 12 games on Sunday. The Philadelphia Eagles win over the Atlanta Falcons and Tennessee Titans upset of the Green Bay Packers produced the biggest wins of the early games for the books. All three underdogs in the late kickoffs covered the spread, highlighted by the Dallas Cowboys outright win over the favored Pittsburgh Steelers.But the Seahawks win over the Patriots -- especially when put in context with what happened in Super Bowl XLIX between Seattle and New England -- was the sweetest for the books.New England defeated Seattle 28-24 in that Super Bowl, with Patriots defensive back Malcolm Butler picking off a slant pass from Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson at the goal line in the final seconds to secure the win in a game with a consensus closing line of pick em. It was a costly swing for multiple Las Vegas sportsbooks; both the Wynn and MGM sportsbooks said the Patriots winning caused seven-figure swings against the house.I wont ever forget it, Jay Rood, MGM vice president of race and sports, told ESPN. I was in the office, watching a smaller TV with a faster feed, while everyone else was watching the big screen that was a few seconds behind. Everyone was wondering why I was cussing and hitting the wall. They soon found out.Jason Simbal, vice president of race and sports at CG Technology, said Butlers interception produced the loudest roar from a sportsbook crowd he remembers. The reaction was the same across town.When Butler intercepted that pass from Wilson the place exploded, a Caesars sportsbook manager said. Between ecstatic Pats fans and pissed off Seahawks fans, and everything in between, its possibly the loudest reaction Ive ever heard in a sportsbook.In the hours leading up to kickoff on Sunday, four times as much money had been bet on Patriiots as had been bet on the Seahawks at the Westgate SuperBook.dddddddddddd. The action on New England was more than double than what was on Seattle at William Hills Nevada sportsbook.[It was a] good day, William Hill director of trading Nick Bogdanovich said in a text message.Odds and ends? A Saturday that saw a slew of top-ranked teams upset produced mixed results for the sportsbooks. No. 2 Clemson, No. 3 Michigan, No. 4 Washington and No. 9 Auburn all lost Saturday.Everyone thought all those upsets were going to be great, the MGMs Rood said. But once you knock one big off like that, you scoop up all the parlay money and the rest of them are basically not great decisions, because you usually have sharp money on the dog side. If you have too many decisions like that you start flushing money to the sharps.Colorado, Washington State and Boise State produced big losses for the MGM at night, Rood said.We cant get anyone to bet Arizona [a 49-24 loser to Colorado], Rood said. The only night game we really won was USC [a 26-13 winner over Washington].? Alabama is now an odds-on favorite to win the national championship at the Westgate SuperBook. The Crimson Tide moved to 4-5 this week, followed by Ohio State (2-1), Louisville (6-1), Clemson (12-1) and Wisconsin (15-1). Washington dropped back to 20-1 after its loss to USC. Other teams still listed: Oklahoma (20-1), West Virginia (50-1), Washington State (50-1), Penn State (50-1).Louisville, one of only three teams with single-digit odds, is the Westgates largest liability at this point.? College basketball tipped off last week, with Duke beginning the season as the consensus favorite to win the national championship. Here are the preseason betting trends on the odds to win the national title at the Westgate:Top 5 teams by number of bets to win the national title 1. Syracuse 2. Kentucky 3. Wisconsin 4a. Michigan State 4b. DukeTop 5 teams by amount of money bet to win the national title 1. Kentucky 2. Duke 3. Syracuse 4. Oregon 5. Wisconsin ' ' '