Other stuff

Various fun stuff from the last couple of years.

Etape du Tour

Each year there is an enormous amateur cycling race to ride a stage from the Tour de France. The only year in which I was able to ride this race was 2009, and the stage was the big mountain stage ending with a climb of Mt. Ventoux. In sum, 167 km with 12,611 feet of climbing (3800 meters). Next up is the Triple Bypass from Evergreen to Avon, 120 miles and 10,000 feet of climbing (if I get selected in the lottery).

Defi du Monte Cristo

Equally cool is the 5 km swim from Chateau d'If to the mainland held each year in Marseilles, "Le Defi de Monte-Cristo". This roughly mimics the swim of Edmond Dantes in The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas. In the book Dantes hides in a bag of dead bodies to escape and then swim. We just started on beach at the Chateau and jumped in. Kind of lame. [In the photo, the swimmers are in the foreground, with the Chateau on the island in the back, and a ferry passing between it and the Frioul islands. Credit: Graeme Moffat]

Ultimate Frisbee

My last competitive team was "Truckstop" from the DC-area. We finished 13th in 2006 and 5th in 2007 at the UPA Nationals in Sarasota Florida. My team in France, "Le Ziggles", finished 6th in the French indoor championships in 2009.