Annecy to bid for Winter Olympics 2018 - in with a shout?

It could be after the decision by the French Olympic Committee (Comité National Olympique et Sportif Français, CNOSF) to support Annecy in its bid to host the Winter Olympic games in 2018.

The picturesque city dubbed "the Venice of the Alps" in the Rhône-Alpes region of southeastern France, beat out rivals Grenoble, Nice and Pelvoux in the first round of voting on Tuesday and will now thrown its hat into the ring with some powerful international rivals.

They include the two front-runners Munich in Germany and the South Korean city of Pyeongchang, along with Almaty in Kazahkstan.

Those are the other cities that have so far declared their bids or confirmed their interest.

Annecy might still be an outside bet, but after yesterday's decision some here in France at least, are hopeful that it could spring a surprise.

Indeed it already has, to a great extent, in overcoming the much more-fancied Grenoble so easily.

"This bid has to be supported by the whole of the French sporting community," said the president of the CNOSF, Henri Sérandour, who'll be stepping down from his post in May.

"That's a message I want to pass on to my successor".

So what has Annecy got going for it?

First up it's undoubtedly beautifully situated and is chocolate-box pretty.

That in itself of course isn't enough to host such an event, but it's only 30 minutes away from the international airport of Geneva in Switzerland, and has a regular high-speed TGV link with the French capital, Paris.

So getting there shouldn't be a problem.

Asked on French national television why he thought Annecy had been successful in convincing the CNOSF to support the city's candidature, Antoine Dénériaz, French downhill gold medalist at the Games in Turin in 2006, said much of it was down to the make-up of team which had put together the bid.

"The principle reason for its success so far has been that the bid was led by sportsmen and women, with the support of the mayor (himself a former sports champion) and add to that of course we've already played host to a number of international sporting events," he said.

It's true, Annecy has held international ice skating events, already has an excellent infrastructure in place with three major ski resorts nearby, including Chamonix, but will that be enough to see out the might of the Pyeongchang, widely fancied to be the favourite?

It'll be a tough job according to Jean-Claude Killy, the triple Olympic champion in Alpine skiing who dominated the sport in the late 1960s and is probably one of this country's best known sportsmen.

"South Korea has already bid to host the Games twice," he said.

"This'll be the third time, and I'm not going to pretend that it'll be extremely difficult."

But that didn't stop the good folk of Annecy - or Annéciens and Annéciennes - from celebrating the first step in what promises to be a very long journey.

The official application deadline will close in October this year and by next July the successful candidate cities will be selected.

There will then follow the process of evaluation - technical and otherwise - before the International Olympic Committee officially announces the "winner" in July 2011 in Durban, South Africa.

"Personally I believe very strongly that we can win the bid, said Dénériaz.

"We have an extraordinary international symbol with the Mont Blanc....the adventure continues and it'll be something exceptional and of course now we'll be helped by the French Olympic Committee".