J'aime Le Tour

Saturday, with the help of some new friends, I made my way out of Geneva to the Col de la Colombiere to watch stage 7 of the Tour de France. After scurrying about the airport to find my rental car (unlike in the States, here they simply give you the keys and tell you it’s in the parking lot) and rushing home to get my gear, I ended up driving around Geneva, lost, fearing that I would miss the Tour (for a foreign first timer Geneva makes D.C. seem easy to navigate). Eventually I found my way to the proper exit where I met Will and Doreen. Parking at the bottom, we climbed the Col amid the crowds to the summit. What a climb! The last 2 km are brutal (12%), and even the Tour riders suffered there (alas, they are human). Meeting up with Scott and Barry at the 1 km banner, we had some time to kill. Since the vendors at the top were out of drinks hours before the Tour passed by, as the group domestique, I rode back down towards the valley to try to find us some cold beverages. After descending what felt like the entire mountain (o.k., it was maybe halfway), no vendors were to be found, so I decided to head back up so as not to miss the Tour. As luck would have it, I saw two German guys with a ton of gear in the back of their car. After chatting for a bit, they were kind enough to spare 10 beers for our group. So, with a sack full of beer on my back, I proceeded to climb back to the top. Just around that turn up there I kept telling myself; how do these guys ride this stuff day in and day out; where is the top? After what seemed like half the day (probably less than an hour), I reached the group at the 1km banner. Cheers! The publicity caravan was fun, highlighted by the Homer Simpson float. Then after hours in the hot sun, the helicopters arrived, signaling the lead riders. Mostly a blur, I did manage to find Michael Rasmussen (the current leader, and a former world champ mountain biker - notice Tour winner Alberto Contador of Disco right next to Rasmussen - who was later kicked off his team for missing doping controls in this year's Tour de Farce). Word on the street is that we did make it on TV too. What a fun day. Hope to catch many a Tour in the future.

(Note / Update: After riding up Col de la Faucille Sunday afternoon (for the first time sans rain), I realize the first pictures I posted of the lake and mountains in the background are a far cry from the vista on a clear day. (I will have to take my camera on a clear day to do the view of Mont Blanc across the lake its due justice. I will also have to find some new routes as I saw a motorcyclist laid out and being attended to by paramedics on the side of the road after he got tangled up with a car.)