It’s a competitive world, FX. After taking a bit of a beating from his mates in last year’s L’Etape du Tour bike race, Marcus Browning, former global head of FX option trading at Merrill Lynch, appears to have resorted to desperate measures to improve his performance in this year’s edition, which will run 187km from Gap over two cols before hitting the 21 hairpin bends of Alpe d’Huez at the finish.
The July 6 event, which takes place over the same course as stage 15 of the 2006 Tour de France, attracts many competitive City types anxious to prove their youth. Browning has recently taken delivery of a new, very expensive bicycle and has also engineered three months’ gardening leave (and thereby intensive training) by upping sticks and moving to Citi as global head of FX trading.
Before he starts, Browning intends to get the mileage in. However, bets are being placed that he will not fare any better than last year, especially now that Frank Rawlins, his former boss in a previous job at JPMorgan Chase, also has time on his hands.