A slightly unusual Tour de France story here from the Seattle Times. Most Tour de France podium stories concentrate on the feats of the winners, the efforts of the runners up, the sweat, the tears… but this one’s about podium love.
The Times relates that at last year’s Tour, US Postal rider George Hincapie
was on the podium, waiting to receive his stuffed lion, when he spotted podium girl Melanie Simonneau of Dijon, and promptly fell for her. Notes were exchanged and the two started dating, disregarding Credit Lyonnais’ non-fraternisation rule. According to the story, the two were caught out exchanging a kiss somewhere other than the podium and Simonneau was promtly fired.
But, this being a proper love story, the George and Melanie apparently overcame the disapproval of the powers that be and, a year on, are still together, engaged and expecting their first child in November.
That’ll add a new dimension to those podium daydreams…
Find out more about George at hincapie.com.
