In about two hours my brother, his girlfriend and I are hitting the road to be super fans at the Tour of California professional bike race. This will be our third year in a row sleeping on the side of the road, eating fast food and chasing the peleton as it makes its way from one end of California to the other over the course of nine days.
How is this photography related? Largely it isn’t, but I will have my full camera kit and will shoot lots of photos, even if they are mostly for my own gratification. I would love to be one of the press photographers riding along on the back of a motorcycle and getting right up close to the action. It would be great to see my photos in the pages of Velo News. I can only imagine the life of Grahm Watson, traveling to the biggest races all over the world and taking famous calendar and poster photos of people like Lance Armstrong, Jan Ulrich and Tom Boonen. But I’m content being able to pretend for one week each year. With the camera around my neck I even look official enough to get into some of the post race press conferences without being questioned.
This Tour of California should be one for the books. Lance Armstrong will continue his comeback, racing on US soil for the first time in several years. Floyd Landis, Tyler Hamilton and Ivan Basso will also make their combacks after serving bans for doping. All the biggest teams from around the world will be there and the line up will feature more Tour de France, world, olympic and national champions than have ever raced in the US before.
We will be posting videos of our adventure. Watch for some here, but the main viewing station will be the website for my brother’s bike shop FLYWHEEL BICYCLE SOLUTIONS in Talent, Oregon.