As World Cup fervor recedes, Europeans are shifting their attention to Le Tour de France. During morning coffee, we now debate whose countryman will not only emerge in the yellow jersey along the Champs Elysees but also who will clinch the polka dotted jersey (apparently this is awarded to the “King of the Mountains”). As an aside, my co-workers found it hilarious that I had no idea there were other competitive facets of the Tour de France After consulting the route map, I realized that the 2010 Tour passed within a kilometer of Geneva and hastily organized a LGO reunion (my dual degree program) there for last weekend. Pictured below are Karla (Turgi, Switzerland), Chris (Liverpool, England), Kevin (Basel, Switzerland), Dannielle (Sienna, Italy), me, and Todd (Marburg, Germany).
We spent the bulk of Saturday sightseeing and aimlessly wandering around Geneva. While we were taking an afternoon rest with our feet in the lake, we heard a great deal of commotion. Turns out our trip to Geneva coincided with their annual Lake Parade which can best be described as Mardi Gras coupled with a gay pride parade. I won’t sear anybody’s eyes with pictures so instead here’s one of our customary MIT shots with Geneva’s iconic Jet d’Eau water cannon. By the time I graduate, I feel as though I’ll have a coffee table book’s worth of these poses.
Sunday marked Stage 8 of Le Tour; the alpine stage between Station des Rousses and Morzine Avoriaz. I had strategically booked rooms literally on the Swiss – French border (France was 1/3 cheaper) so all we had to do on Sunday was roll out of bed and walk 10 minutes to the Tour route. The group looked a bit skeptical when I had us all plop down under a tree in the middle of a roundabout in the French countryside but within 30 minutes we were joined by a hundred or so other spectators. A hour before the first riders come through, an endless caravan of sponsors whizzed by throwing out everything from water to gummy bears to hats.
We got decked out to show our Tour spirit and cheer on Lance.
I was surprised by the speed of the first group of riders. The lead sprinting group of five or six riders was a good ten minutes ahead of the peloton. Unbeknown to us at the time, Lance had fallen at the beginning of the stage but by our position had recovered to leading the peloton with Team Radio Shack.
We cheered our hearts out for Lance however he suffered two crashes later in the stage and is effectively out of the running for the yellow jersey and plans to retire at the end of this year’s Tour at least according to BBC aka the only English television channel I receive. Who knows, maybe we witnessed a little bit of cycling history?
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