Ever since the days of three time Tour de France winner, Greg Lemond, I have been a European cycle racing fan. I also enjoy getting out on my bike as much as I can and even riding in some organized centuries and local races. Now and again I even photograph local road and mountain bike races, finding that the quick thinking and response time required for action photography is a nice break from landscape work. I have a dream about one day following the Tour de France or one of the other grand European pro tours and capturing classic shots of the peleton riding through the Alps or fields of sunflowers.
At the end of February this year I had the opportunity to do the next best thing, and just a few hours drive from my home. Along with some other local cycling enthusiasts I drove down to the San Francisco bay area to follow the first few stages of the Tour of California. In only its second year, the tour attracted over 1.6 million viewers along it’s 650 mile, eight day course which starts in San Francisco and winds its way through wine country and along the coast, ending in Long Beach. It brought together the most distinguished selection of riders to ever compete on US soil. In addition to many strong national teams, nine of the biggest Euro pro tour teams showed up. If you follow the Tour de France, then teams like Discovery, CSC, Rabbobank, Gerolsteiner and Credit Agricole as well as riders like Levi Leipheimer, George Hincapie, Ivan Basso and Paulo Bettini will ring a bell.
I mostly went to be a spectator, but couldn’t resist bringing the camera gear along to try my hand at shooting some world-class cycling action. While I didn’t have access to a motorcycle escort or a media helicopter like the great cycling photographer, Graham Watson, does, I was pleased by how accessible the event was to spectators and photography enthusiasts like myself. In most US professional sporting events, the spectators are confined to stadium seats and may only get within binocular range of the action. But as European cycling enthusiasts are well aware, in road racing the competition is held on public streets and highways where fans can line the course and cheer on their favorites from just inches away.
I traded off using a Canon 20D fitted with a 70-200mm telephoto zoom for distant shots with a Canon 5D fitted with a 16-35mm lens and a camera mounted flash for shooting the riders when they were so close I could touch them. For most shots I tried to maintain a shutter speed of at least 1/800 of a second to freeze the motion. Slower shutter speeds, panning and fill flash can also be used to create some fun motion blur effects to create the sensation of speed.
I followed the first three days of the tour. With a little map work I was able to shoot the race from one pre-scouted location along the course and then drive to the finish city ahead of the riders and capture the action at the end of the stage. It was as fun and exiting as I imagined it would be. Next year I hope to be able to be there for the entire eight days. Then I’ll be ready for a European grand tour. If anyone knows of a motorcyclist with a press pass to the Tour de France and who happens to be looking for a photographer, give him my number.
To check out some of the race photos on my stock site click HERE.
To see a more complete selection of images from the race log on HERE.
