The Tour de France is an event that has always fascinated me. Some of my friends are incredulous as to how I can be interesting in a sport that has arguably been rendered null and void by doping. It's an event for the continentals after all, and no one in the UK gives a monkey's about who's wearing the yellow jersey by the end of July... After all, apart from a couple of Scots called Millar - Robert, a King of the Mountains winner in the 1980s, and David, who was banned for two years and stripped of his 2003 World Championship time trial rainbow jersey, but has since been prominent in the fight against doping - British riders have hardly set the Tour de France alight. And then there is the tragedy of Tom Simpson who died 40 years ago on Mont Ventoux.

However, the crowds that turned up to watch the Tour prologue and first stage in London and Kent are proof that it's not just me, one man and his dog who are still interested in the event.

I say "event" and not "cycling" for a good reason. Like many others, I'm not overly bothered about who'll win the next ProTour road race, but thanks to Channel Four's coverage in the early Nineties, I was hooked on the Tour de France from an early age. Presented by Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin, the half-hour daily programme had the coolest of Kraftwerk-inspired theme tunes. Not only that, but you had freaks of nature like Miguel Indurain crushing the oppposition on both the mountain slopes and time trial routes, as well as mad sprinters such as Djamolidine Abdoujaparov involved in crashes like this. It was a spectacle.

It takes a lot to cycle up Alpe d'Huez - some say it takes more than just energy bars and good legs. Indeed, some of the past winners of what is the Blue Riband stage of Le Tour were later caught doping or suspected to have doped. Marco Pantani was one those cyclists. He would career up a mountain as if his life depended on it. Another rider, Jan Ullrich, the German winner in 1997, is suspected to have used EPO owing to his alleged involvement in the Puerto doping case. Of all the riders I've seen on television, Ullrich was something else - the Roger Black of cycling. There was something about his style - treading an improbably high gear, so unlike the typical waif-like specialist climbers, yet leaving everyone for dead bar Lance Armstrong - that made me warm to him. The eternal runner-up to Armstrong, you get the feeling that he never did fulfil his potential.

Now that it seems that Ullrich's exploits were allegedly the result of red blood cell transfusions for most of his career. Ullrich continues to deny any wrong-doing, but after the meltdown at year's event, you would think he'd be man enough to own up now.

As for cycling in general, things may have to get even worse for it to get better. In the meantime, I suggest you read some of these articles. They're compelling.

Chasslie

My wine of the month for July. A 2005 Gutedel from the Ehrenstetter Oelberg site situated about 15 km south of Freiburg. Very yeasty on the nose owing to the fact that the wine was left on the lees for a prolonged period after fermentation. Hence the name Chasslie - a play on the Swiss name for Gutedel ("Chasselas") and the French term sur lie, meaning "on the lees". Clever, eh?

I went on my bike this afternoon for a brisk ride to nowhere in particular. Lately I've just been following my nose, and today's excursion was no exception.

This time, I rode along the spur of the Tüllinger hill round into Switzerland and then back into Germany a few hundred metres further along the path. It's an interesting corner to explore because sometimes you can flit through from one country to the other several times.

The weather for cycling was very pleasant. Although the sun wasn't shining, it still felt pleasantly warm but nice and fresh, what with the breeze that was blowing. I stopped for a while on a bench in the middle of the vineyards situated literally on the border. The view looking down was interesting as the vines to my right were in Switzerland and the vines to my left and behind me were in Germany. An old border stone dating back to the 15th century also marked the spot. As you'll see in the photos below, one side is painted in the black and white episcopal emblem of Basle while the other is covered in the yellow and red that denotes the territory of the "Markgraf of Baden".


















Achtung halt! After 50 metres or so in D, the path takes me back into CH. This is the view back to Germany with Lörrach in the distance. The sign in German is situated on the Tüllinger Weinweg.















1. View up from the border to the top of the Tüllinger hill
2. View from another border crossing looking back into Weil.

Panorama*

*With thanks to Paul for stitching the photos together for me.

Panorama

I need to ask someone how to do this so that I can merge all four of these photos into one.




























Do you notice how green the grass is? No danger of drought this summer.

Sunset

Hottest day of the year so far today with temperatures up to 35C. I didn't do much on what was a lazy Sunday, but I managed to get out later on in the evening and take some photos. Thankfully, it wasn't hazy and the view to the Vosges was very clear. You may be able to make out the Rhine in a couple of them: a small slither of light on the valley floor.




























Take-off..

Hello...

...is it me you're looking for?

Tonight, right at this very moment, the one and only LIONEL RICHIE is playing a gig here in Weil am Rhein!!!

As many as 6,000 people from far and wide have flocked to the "Dreiländergarten" (i.e. the old Grün 99 garden show grounds) to witness this true veteran of soul and R&B trip the light fantastic again. (May I just mention to you that he is still in the early part of his set and is currently singing a cover of "Lazy on a Sunday morning". I can hear it loud and fairly clear from my balcony.)

Thanks in no small part to the amazing capacity of the German public to embrace past greats of the 1980s with open arms as they embark on their twentieth "world tour", our Lionel has enjoyed somewhat of a renaissance in popularity on the European continent. Germany, the country that spawned The Scorpions - who sang about the winds of change, going down to Gorki Park and following the Moskva, etc. - is the last bastion of the aging rock/pop star. For example, Phil Collins is still HUGE here, and even Phil Collins tribute bands pull in the mulleted, denim-jacket-clad crowds, as I witnessed a few years ago at the Spargelfest in Walldorf.

Anyway, as you can probably gather, I'm not attending tonight's concert. However, given a choice between watching James Blunt - who played the same venue last year - and our Lionel, I think I would be dancing all night long instead of crooning about someone being beautiful.

Freiburger Weinfest

Went to Freiburg to attend the Freiburger Weinfest last Saturday for the first ever time. Set on the Münsterplatz underneath the towering cathedral, all the movers and shakers of the local wine scene were present showcasing their wines in little pavillions and at circular, open-air bars. To the best of my knowledge, the wines I tried were as follows:
Weingut Stigler, Ihringen, Riesling Kabinett trocken 2006;
Weingut Schlumberger, Laufen, Sauvignon Blanc trocken 2006;
Weingut Fritz Waßmer, Bad Krozingen-Schlatt, Spätburgunder Barrique trocken, 2005;
a 2003 Pinot Noir from a winery whose name escapes me (didn't like it at all as it let off pungent beetroot on the nose - either another wine suffering from that legendary 2003 flab or simply a faulty wine);
then the same Fritz Waßmer wine later to round off the evening. That was all I had, honest [hic].

I also ended the evening taking home one of these glasses (NB: the photo isn't mine).

vis à vis 2007

A big fest has been taking place these past two days to celebrate the inauguration of what is the world's longest pedestrian bridge of its kind across the Rhine from Weil to Huningue (see my Schwingungsmessung post last January). With attractions and entertainment on both sides of the river, it's probably the biggest combined fest ever in this neck of the woods.

I ventured over at midday today to have a look, and I liked what I saw. The fact that it's now possible to walk or cycle over to France is something that will probably be taken for granted in future, but building such a bridge in the first place took many years of planning, and such a celebration is more than justified. Don't worry, I'm not going to get all eurofriendly now and start gushing tripe about common borders, blah blah blah, but it is a pretty momentous event for Weil. I, for one, will continue to use the bridge in future as a means of cycling to the cricket pitch in Allschwil on the outskirts of Basel by the French border. The bridge itself is also very elegant, and I doff my proverbial cap to the architects who designed it. And to the people who designed this poster, for that matter.

































The photo on the right is of the Place Abbatucci in Huningue at noon today.

Zuoz, part 3

Here are some more personal impressions from the weekend in Engadine:

On the Sunday, we played our final match - a play-off for third place versus Munich CC. As I was hobbling around after the injury, playing was out of the question, so I was asked to do some square-leg umpiring for the first 15 overs of both innings to keep me occupied. I quite enjoyed it, especially giving one of Munich's openers out after a run out. I could see that the batsman in question was miles out after taking a risky single, so I made a decision and raised my finger. Oh dear. The dismay was etched on his face - but I nodded at him to confirm that he was indeed out. Maybe in an ideal world, I would have appreciated the get-out clause of referring the decision to the third umpire, but in my mind he was stone-wall OUT. End of.

3rd game:
Munich CC 157/6 after 30 overs.
Basel CC 161/3 after 17.3 overs.
Basel won by 7 wickets.

Some further observations:
Apart from a Swiss junior team that was cobbled together at short notice for the tournament, the Germany U-19 team also took part. I don't want to encourage stereotypes, but the Germans took the whole event way too seriously. We didn't play them, but from the way they celebrated each wicket during their match on the adjacent pitch on Saturday afternoon, you might have got impression that they had just sent Ricky Ponting back to the pavillion in the World Cup Final - such was the extent of their whooping and shrieking. I also overheard their coach - who was umpiring at square leg at the time - remonstrating with his charges sat behind the boundary because they were talking a bit too loudly for his liking: "Hört auf mit dem Diskutieren, verdammt nochmal!".

Sledging:
Plenty of it whenever Basel played. Oh yess... But don't worry, it was all above board and good-natured. Our Sledger-in-Chief and wicketkeeper / part-time spin bowler, the South African called Burger (he'd flown in from London specially to play in Zuoz), came up with a few gems. For example, about the Munich batsman who walked to the crease with shades on, he noted: "Guys, he's wearing sun glasses to hide the fear in his eyes!". And his mantra during the Lyceum match was, "Boring cricket, guys, boring cricket... Let's bore them to death!"

An even more honorable mention also goes to the Aussie David Sykes, who used to live in Switzerland and play for Basel but now lives back in Oz. He flew all the way from Australia to play at the tournament. Howzat for dedication?

A fantastic-looking golf course adjoined the four cricket pitches, hence the putting green and golf buggies you can see in the photos below.














Team versus Munich CC, 24 June 2007:
Top (left to right): Suthan, Burger, Nikhil, Tariq, David
Botton: Jacques, Michael, Francois, Sajid, Anthony, Shani















Photo on the right: view from the golf clubhouse terrace as Basel hit the winning runs versus Munich at around 2 p.m. on the Sunday.

Basel/Basle/Baaaarl...

Here are three photos I originally omitted from the Art Basel shoot.

Zuozed out

Having won the toss, Milan put us in to bat. We amassed 158. I was last man to come on the bat and finished the innings "not out", albeit having made no runs. I faced four balls, two of which I left and two of which I fended away defensively. Admittedly not very spectacular, but I just wanted to get to the end of the over, after which we would have had three more overs to go. However, Jay the captain got cleaned out first ball of the next over, and that, as they say, was that.

Milan began their innings steadily, but after a prolonged opening partnership we made steady inroads into their line-up and ended up bowling them out for 101. I saved a few runs in the field in my positions of "short mid-wicket" and "fine leg". I also bowled an over near the end, but didn't take a wicket and conceded two runs. However, on the strength of my fielding I earned a place in the starting line-up for the next match vs. the Lyceum Alpinum school team. So it was that I tucked into my barbecue lunch feeling quite chuffed about my performance and looking forward to the afternoon.

1st game:
Basel CC 158 all out after 27 overs.
Milan CC 101 all out.
Basel won by 57 runs.

The school team were altogether a different kettle of fish. Some of them really could play. In particular, their captain George almost beat Basel single-handedly last year with both ball and bat - a match Basel ultimately won after a hard-fought encounter. This year was again a close-run thing, but we lost out this time by 4 runs. Fielding first, we struggled to keep their batsman tied down. They hit quite a few fours and sixes. One side of the pitch was adjacent to the main road leading to St Moritz - and, beyond that, the river. We ended up having to cross that road a few times to retrieve a good few lusty hits.

Unfortunately, I turned my left knee badly while fielding and had to come off after 17 overs. I was fielding at fine leg at the time and was attempting to save a four - which I did. However, my left leg got caught in the turf and I felt a dart of pain round the meniscus area. I instantly knew it was the meniscus, since I've long had the same injury on my right knee through playing football. After jogging around tentatively, I decided to play on, but the knee stiffened up after while and I decided to call it a day. I watched the remaining proceedings glumly from the boundary, knowing that I wouldn't be able to play again that weekend.

2nd game:
Lyceum School Team 196/6 after 30 overs.
Basel CC 192/8 after 30 overs.
Basel lost by 4 runs.

To be continued...

Zuoz

For the third year in a row, Basel Cricket Club took part last weekend in the annual "Cricket Festival" in the mountain village of Zuoz in Engadine. I'd signed up to play in this event months previously and was looking forward to playing cricket under an impressive Alpine backdrop.

After an unproblematical if rather long journey by train early on Friday afternoon to Zuoz via Landquart and Sagliains (with the Rhätische Bahn), I joined up with some of my team mates at the Zuoz Golf Club bar at around 5.30 for a some drinking games... The game we played involved two dice. Depending on the combination of numbers each time the dice were thrown, someone had to take a sip (or several sips) of their Calanda beer. This went on for about an hour, though no one had more than three beers for the duration of the game since the emphasis was more on taking quick-fire sips than huge finger measurements each go. Afterwards, some of us adjourned to our hotel as we'd booked a large table for dinner there. Others, including yours truly nipped into the Dorta first for a cheeky aperitif.

After an enjoyable meal, most of us returned to the Dorta for a couple of beers before adjourning to the hotel at around midnight.

Saturday morning began in earnest with all the team reporting to the pitches at 9 a.m. The tournament is run by the local school Lyceum Alpinum, an international boarding school for children of extremely rich parents. Over the weekend I heard stories of Russian mafia parents whisking their kids to school in their 4x4s being followed by Interpol detectives on their trail. The school itself overlooks the village and seems very well endowed, if you get my gist.

Anyway, here is a list of this year's participating clubs:

Lyceum School Team (Swiss)

Basel CC (Swiss)

Winterthur CC (Swiss)

Munich CC (German)

Milan CC (Italian)

Germany U19's (German)

Swiss Junior Team (Swiss)

Lodi CC (Italian)

All eight teams were able to play matches at the same time since the grounds comprised four pitches. Munich were drawn to play their first match on the best pitch (Pitch 1) versus the Lyceum school team, while we got Milan on Pitch 4, the worst pitch. I say "worst" pitch in that the crease consisted of natural grass under a plastic gauze, which made for a slightly inconsistent bounce. However, set in what was on one side virtually a natural amphitheatre with very short boundaries, it made for an enjoyable encounter.

To be continued...

Two random things I've noticed

I was feeling a bit restless and couped up yesterday evening so I went on a walk. As is my wont, I went down the Hauptstraße, up the hill to the vineyards, and then back again along quieter roads through town. Firstly, as I was on the hill I noticed a large building to the left of the centre of Basle as I was looking. It clearly glowing red. I then realised that it must be St. Jakob Park, home of FC Basel. An extra tier had been added to one of the sides of the ground last season, and with this side facing north towards Germany it's a lot easier to spot from far away.

Secondly, I noted a peculiarity about my neighbourhood in Weil, which I should like to share with you. Most of the houses in this neighbourhood were built in the 1920s to accommodate the families of railway workers. Largely renovated today, they give the place a snug suburban character - situated on peaceful tree-lined streets, with uniformly arranged front and back gardens and pretty little doors often with a few steps leading up. On warm summer evenings like yesterday, a fair few residents tend to sit in twos or threes on these steps for hours, it seems, and chat or stare at passers-by. You would think they would sit in the back garden - for that is what any modest Englishman would do - but no, they camp out at the front. Coming from a country where sitting out in the front garden is usually associated with squatters lying spaced out on discarded old sofas, I find it slightly unnerving.

Art Basel

Spent a very enjoyable Saturday afternoon at Art Basel with colleague Andrea, her boyfriend David, plus their friend Anna from Spain. It's supposed to be the world's premier art fair, although I'd never considered going until this year. There was a lot see, and we could have easily stayed another few hours had the exhibition not closed at 7 p.m. Unfortunately cameras were "verboten" inside, but thanks to Andrea's handbag I managed to smuggle mine in and take a sly picture of some neon lights that reminded me of those French New Wave films of the 60s and 70s. Afterwards we adjourned to Bar Rouge at the top of the Messeturm for a drink and a chat.

Blimey, what with this and my recent trip to the Munch exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler, I fear I may be turning a bit arty.

Thunderstorm

Last night in Weil. For the fourth week in succession, the sky started rumbling just before our weekly cricket practice. This time, however, I'd seen the radar picture of the storm approaching and opted to get home from work as quickly as possible. It was one of the stronger downpours I've seen. I've lived in my current flat for nearly four years, and for the first ever time the balcony - which should theoretically be covered from the elements - got completely soaked.

Don't say I don't live an exciting life.