What a crazy week!!  Last week I took part in Polygiro, a 4-day bike tour through the Alps of 3 countries.  This tour brought together students from the Polito in Turin, INPG in Grenoble and EPFL in Lausanne on an epic tour of the mountains between these three cities.  Here's some highlights of the week:

Prologue: Lausanne - Col du Grand St. Bernard (CH-IT border) - Aoste ~140km, 2000m vertical

Instead driving down to Turin on Wednesday to meet the French  and Italian students, the Swiss contingent thought it would be a good idea to warm up by biking from Lausanne to Aoste! Following a fast 80km of flat road, we attacked the 45km 2000m vertical climb up the pass. After a nice spaghetti lunch on the Italian side of the border, we sped down into the Aoste valley before being picked up by our trucks and driving the rest of the way.  The night was spent in a nice hotel offered to us by Polito (thanks!).

Day 1: Oulx - Col de l'Echelle (IT-FR border) - Col de Lauteret - (Col du Galibert) - Bourg d'Oisans 114km, 1339m vertical

The first official day started with a spectacular yet steep climb up the Col de l'Echelle. After a descent and roadside sandwiches we attacked the Col de Lotaret, with some brave souls (not me of course) continuing on to climb the Col de Galibier.  The rest of the day was a 40km descent (!!!) into Bourg d'Oisans, which also saw our first casualty, a Swiss student who fell at 70km/h, luckily escaping with only minor scrapes and bruises.  Beers in the local beer preceded sleep on mattresses in the town hall.

Day 2: (Alpe d'Huez)-Bourg d'Oisans - Col d'Ornon - La Mure - Grenoble 102km, ~1000m vertical

Since we were in Bourg d'Oisans, it would be wrong not to climb up the Alpe d'Huez, of Tour fame, as a warmup for the day's ride!  Being a bad climber and having only 2 chainrings, I didn't even attempt it, although a solid 15 of our group went early in the morning.  One of them was Santos, a champion from El Salvador who was one of our best riders, and who also happens to have only one arm!  This guy was a source of inspiration the whole week...

Day 3: Grenoble - Col de Porte - Col du Cucheron - Col du Granier - Aix-les-Bains ~100km, ~2000m vertical

After spending the night in a gym again at INPG, we set off for our hardest day (other than the prologue), starting right away with a pass climbing straight out of Grenoble (214m) up the Col de Porte (1326m).  Not much time for a break, since we still had two more passes to climb that day.  The last descent of the day down from the Col du Granier was INSANE, super-fast with lost of really tight turns, definately had to be careful on the way down!  But what a thrill..

Day 4: Yvoire -Genève (FR-CH border) - Lausanne 80km, ~0m vertical

The last day was going to be a large descent from Morzine, but rainy weather and the fact that we were crazy descenders made the organizers change the route.  Instead we had a leisurely "ride into Paris", taking the lake-side road from Yvoire on the French, through Geneva and into Lausanne.  The whole group rode in peleton, with the strong riders leading us near 40km/h most of the time!  On the last leg we were also joined by the champion of the world in recliner-biking (forgot his name.. :P).  In true style, the ride finished with three tours of the large EPFL roundabout.  And so ends the first edition of the Polygiro...

After a long an arduous search that took me a couple months and  wasted a lot of my time, I have finally found and moved in to a new apartment in Lausanne.  No longer in student housing, I've got a very large and spacious 4.5 room flat right in the centre of Lausanne!

Although this may seem shocking, even though I grew up in Toronto, I've never actually been to NYC.  It's been a planned mission for the last several years, but living in Lausanne has made it quite difficult to make it over.  Being in the same state however, and having a place to crash in NYC and a few days of vacation left, I had no choice but to buy a bus ticket and go!

Arrival on Friday night to the sound of "start spreading the news...", I met my friend Lindsey who lives in downtown Manhattan, and went straight to our first club!  I have to say partying in New York is like nowhere else in the world...

Saturday was spent touring Lower Manhattan with my ol' friend Pete, who's living in Brooklyn doing med school right now.  Notable things seen: WTC remnants, crazy breakdancing in the street, and lots of NY-italians in Little Italy.  Yet another club in the evening...

Sunday was a bit more serious, with a visit to the UN Headquarters.  I was by myself this time, so I just wandered around town snapping shots  of skyscrappers, and watched Federer win the US Open on an open-air screen in the Rockafellar center.  I was the only one cheering for Federer I think...

Sunday night, yet another club! After 3 days of partying I w as starting to get pretty exhausted and my whole body was shaking...

Monday I paid my respects at the WTC for the 5th anniversary of 9.11, and after a stroll through Central Park to recover from all the clubs I took the long bus ride home, saying adieu to NYC, until next time of course...

One last thing: 

The second half of my two-week vacation in Canada actually ended up being in the US.  On Tuesday I packed up some hiking and climbing gear and went for a drive with my friend Pete and his gf Kat to Lake Placid, in the Adirondacks of New York State.  The plan was to do a few days of camping and hiking in the deep bear-filled hilly forest.

Our first hike on Wednesday started off quite nice, with a walk through a slowly-rising path towards Algonquin peak.  As we reached the top however, ugly thick clouds fell onto us, and we were stuck in a rainstorm!  The path turned into a river, and we were completely soaked.  We got back to camp to try to dry out and light a fire with wet wood...at least we had some kielbasa to eat for supper :D.

Thrusday was a mission to find some rock climbing in the area.  After asking some guys in the local mountain shop, we managed to find some cliffs, but didn't have nearly enough gear to climb it, so we just took it easy and made some burgers, and hiked a small little hill outside our campsite to get a view of the area.  And we stayed dry!  And at least we didn't run into any bears, since Kat always had her bear bell with her :P

Friday morning Pete and Kat were going for some more hiking, but I was itching to get out of the hills and into a real city...so I bought a bus ticket to New York City!  More on that in the next post...

Thursday I had the honour of being a groomsman for my old friend Tom's wedding to his lovely fiancée Laura.  The day started like any other Polish wedding, with a couple shots of vodka to get Tom ready for the big "I do".

The ceremony went great, minus a few tears and a horrified look on Tom's face, the lovely couple was joined in the ceremony of matrimony.  The new bride and groom then proceeded for a few pictures with the photographer at the University of Toronto campus.  And that's where it all went wrong... 

The groom was arrested!!!

Luckily no harm was done, and we managed to get him out of jail in time for the wedding reception.  Those pics are still to come...

Congradulations Tom and Laura!!