Stage 18 Annecy.  Drama and Beauty
By Connie Carpenter

“Big day tommorow. 40k TT in Annecy. Maybe one of the prettiest spots in France or anywhere for that matter.”  So reads the Twitter of Lance Armstrong….after stage 17. 

It’s true.  Annecy is picture perfect.  They are bidding for the 2018 Winter. Olympics which is one of the big reasons they are pulling out the stops for the Tour this year. www.annecy-2018.fr  or http://www.annecy-2018.fr/annecy2018-bid-presentation.pdf  Chamonix hosted the first Winter Olympics in 1924.  Annecy is a short 50 km from Geneva.  It’s located in the region of the Haute Savoie, bordering Switzerland and Italy.  It feels like a crossroads, but it’s not a place you pass through easily because you want to stop and explore.

The beauty is not in the town as much as in the environment.  The pristine lake of Annecy is surrounded by Dolomite like mountains, green hills and an intricate network of roads and trails and vast ski mountains.  Glorious for those of us who like to play in the wide open spaces.  Para-sailors dot the sky, boats fill the water, and the bike path is absolutely full of skaters/cyclists/runners and walkers.  Active would be the best word to describe this community.

I’ve been here on Lake Annecy since Saturday and have watched the sides of the roads fill with campers and fans.  It’s staggering when the BEAST that is the Tour comes to town – any town.  It’s a travelling show of unparalleled proportions.
The time trial is a simple lap of the Lake with a twist as it veers sharply away from the lake and climbs 250 meters up to the town of Bluffy before a wide open ripping fast descent back to the Lake and the final 10 k into the finish.  Oh and there’s a couple of speed bumps on the descent as well.  It’s going to be a wild day – and surely the unexpected should be expected.
The biggest unknown will be rain showers.  When it rains, it pours here and it is supposed to do a little of that during the Stage.  All bets are off in that case but talk about Drama.  Bring it on!

Who will win?  Contador is hot but Lance seems to be getting better with the days and no one ever rules out Cancellara in a Time Trial.