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LAUSANNE

Reitzel wins cycle messenger world title

Reigning champion Josephine Reitzel of Switzerland has won her third title on Sunday on home streets at the Cycle Messenger World Championships.

Reitzel wins cycle messenger world title
Josephine Reitzel cycling to victory. Photo: AFP

Austin Horse of the United States took the men's honour.

Reitzel, who also took the honours at the 2010 and 2012 editions in Guatemala and Chicago, shone on the hilly, cobbled Lausanne roads that she plies as a professional courier.

Fellow Swiss riders Renata Buccheli and Sabine Studer completed the podium.

New Yorker Horse, meanwhile, earned his first international award, beating Lausanne's Jonas Vuille and German courier Johannes Killisperger.

Reigning men's champion, Seattle rider Craig Etheridge, failed to add a third title to his haul. Like Reitzel, Etheridge had won both the 2012 and 2010 editions.

Launched 20 years ago, the championships honour the riding and delivery skills of cycle messengers — as well as their sub-culture, fashion and jargon, with categories such as "raddest dude".

The racing reflects the challenges of a messenger's regular working day, with competitors picking up and dropping off packages along a fixed course which includes checkpoints.

Besides speed, messenger competitions also test the participants' strategic ability to plan routes in order to ensure timely deliveries.

In the women's event, Reitzel notched up the required 70 deliveries in a total of three hours, two minutes.

In the men's competition, meanwhile, Horse clocked his 77 deliveries in a time of two hours, 52 minutes.

In total, 550 riders from 40 countries headed to Lausanne for the six-day championships, with 100 making the cut for Sunday's finals.

The 2014 edition is scheduled to take place in Mexico City.

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EMPLOYMENT

Hear ye, here ye! This Swiss city is looking for a town crier

Can you carry a tune? Are you a night owl? If so, this job posting in Switzerland may be up right up your (cobblestone) alley. Here’s how you can submit an application for this… very high position.

Hear ye, here ye! This Swiss city is looking for a town crier
The hat and coat are optional for the job. Photo by Lausanne Tourisme

As far as unusual employment opportunities go, this one from Lausanne is — quite literally — tops.

The city, which employs one of Europe’s last remaining town criers, is looking for people to fill this position on part-time basis.

What’s a town crier?

In Lausanne’s case, it is a person who announces the hours every night between 10 pm and 2 am from the bell tower of the city’s imposing Gothic cathedral, a landmark overlooking the roofs of the picturesque Old Town.

The workplace: Lausanne Cathedral. Photo by Lausanne Tourisme

The person who will assume this position will continue a tradition that this city in the canton of Vaud has cherished since 1405.

These are the requirements for the job:

  • To watch over the city each night
  • Announce each hour on the hour between 10pm and 2am in a melodious voice (in French, but knowledge of foreign languages is a plus)
  • Be able to climb 53 stone steps to the cathedral’s bell tower
  • Not have a criminal record
  • No falling asleep on the job
  • Have a business apprenticeship certificate (we are not sure why)

This is 365-days-a-year job, but the new hire will share the position with other criers.

Interested? This is how you can apply.

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