By Chris Wallis on Sunday, July 29, 2007

Stage 20 Marcoussis to Paris – and finally I can go home

Ironically the day I was looking forward to was the poorest day for photography. The Start was not looking good when it started raining and didn’t look like stopping, and then in between showers all we got was overly bright clouds, not making for the best backgrounds.
The roll out was on some very ugly roads so it was a quick drive straight into Paris and then onto the closed roads of the Rue D’rivoli and the Place de la Concorde.
I took up position at the opposite end to the Arc D’Triumph so that I could shoot coming onto and leaving the Champs Elyesse. I am putting my lack of shots down to some real tiredness. I got the light wrong a few times, motorbikes got out of the way to late so I could focus on the riders properly. In short all the things that I have done, learnt and practiced over the last few weeks went out the window and had to concentrate ... Read More »

By Chris Wallis on Saturday, July 28, 2007

Today was going to be quite a relaxed stage, which I was so grateful for, no need to drive a couple of hundred km’s in one day. I skipped the start all together and went straight to the finish, didn’t feel like trying to get shots on course and find somewhere good, and struggled getting access to the course due to some poor direction.
As the British guys were quite down on the GC (general Classification) I had to get to the finish line quickly to catch Geriant Thomas crossing and then it was time for lunch and sit down ready for the action.
The finish was the same as yesterday, and although it threatened to rain for most of the day when the sun did come out it was coming straight down the finish. Thankfully as it was single riders coming across the line I was able to sit closer, and although surround by guys with 500mm lens I got the shots I wanted.
Not all the riders were kind to the photographers and weaved across the finish straight and al ... Read More »

By Chris Wallis on Friday, July 27, 2007

Cahors to Angolueme Another long day in the car

Yet another slightly boring stage that was destined to end in a breakaway and a sprint finish, and yet another long straight shooting almost into the sun.
Thinking that the one route would be quicker an easier I decided to go in front of the race to the off course exit point and get a shot before then and drive straight to the finish.
The first shot I took was a bit of an experiment having found some slightly interesting towers in the background I messed about with the shutter speed to get a blurred shot, for the first time I got some filters out to counteract the bright sun, an ND x2 and a CPL (as I only have the ND2 for that size) and dropped the shutter speed down to 1/20. Still not 100% sold on the shot but worth while for something different and thinking on my feet.
The rest of the day was a frustrating journey in the car, with some poorly signposted off course route so only with lu ... Read More »

By Chris Wallis on Thursday, July 26, 2007

After the thrills of the mountains with lots of choices to stop and take shot today’s flat’ish stage left me wanting it to be the weekend and the time trial and the Paris stage to go.

I headed out in front of the race looking for somewhere to stop and the only spot I found, a nice downhill stretch with a little country church on it, but it was far too close to the finish that there was no chance to make it back in front of the race in time. Having spent the last few days driving through farm land filled with sunflowers, I was hoping for a classic cycling shot “riders with sunflowers” but was denied all the sunflowers were either facing the wrong way or looking more than a little dead.

This left me with a hope that there was a nice corner in the last km of the finish to get a shot on, sadly in was almost 900m straight with no real corner to catch them coming into.

I was stuck with t ... Read More »

By Chris Wallis on Wednesday, July 25, 2007

a bad day for the tour

I decided to maximise my chance of getting to the final climb of the day where all the action would be and miss the start, I have more than enough shots of everyone at signing on.

I made a nice leisurely journey to Gourette and the shuttle point for the press half way up the final climb, being a very small area at the top the press had to park just below gourette the ski resort and get a shuttle up. This provided a nice challenge in pack for the journey up, making sure I wasn’t going to get caught short, and as with my previous experience I took flash, long, short and wide lens not quite knowing what was up there.

The finish was not a good one for photography, the finish line was on a peak in the road and the press placed behind the line and the crest, shooting almost blind, into the sky and with the sun coming from in front casting some lovely shadows over people crossing the line. With ... Read More »

By Chris Wallis on Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Well today was an eventful day on the tour at least, if not for me. A rest day for the riders should mean a rest day for everyone but sadly not to be so
After a nice late rise for the day with only a trip to the press centre at Pau ahead of me, to upload some photos and sort out a few bits, in the absence of a working Wifi connection at the hotel. The hour and half trip was fairly uneventful, until the euskatel team went by, sadly camera all packed away not expecting to see anything on the way.

All was quite but there was a lot of TV cameras set up, and it wasn't until Rasmussen arrived for a press conference that i realised what they were in aide of. He spent most of it defending himself from the french press about allegations of avoiding drugs tests.
just as we were leaving we saw David Millar arrive and said a very brief hello to him. This was the point we wished we had stayed by the time wwe got back to the hotel we saw the news to say that vin ... Read More »

By Chris Wallis on Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Yesterday was the first day that I drove the whole race route, on the way to the shots. It was a painful journey as I only made it to the bottom of the 2^nd climb before I caught up with the caravan and was then left with a slow drive the rest of the way to the final climb, which was only 10km from the finish.

It was then a tough choice or where to stop, having driven past some of the early spaces the road then got to people lined hairpins so left to drive to the summit and hope there was a space just over the top. I was lucky and there was a nice place to park just a few meters from the summit and then left to walk back down the climb to find a good sp ... Read More »

By Chris Wallis on Sunday, July 22, 2007

almost no dinner and no hotel

On a what should have been a nice gentle journey on pleasant back road to the finish, and the intimidating Plateau-de-Beille things started off a little sour.

The French police were clearly making sure the tour traffic off route was being good, there were 3 speed traps set up and the only cars pulled over were tour ones.

Going the same speed as the car in ... Read More »

By Chris Wallis on Saturday, July 21, 2007

well headed back to the tour, no extra camera in tow so just as i was the first week. It took far too long to get the hire car and then it seemed that everyman and his dog was heading to the south of france and clogged up the autoroutes. Made it but about 2 hours too late for the stage so picked up the pass for my passenger/driver for the week and got a good nights sleep before the first day in the pyraneees tomorrow.

By Chris Wallis on Saturday, July 14, 2007

The first time i haven't seen the finish

 

 

After what I thought was a good start, i.e. I parked in the right place the day only got worse from there.

I got a few good shots at the start and then headed out onto the course, the plan being find an early stop, maybe on the 3^rd cat climb and then get off and dash straight to the main climb of the day, missing the finish but hopefully getting the action on the climb. The first stop was a lot further down than I had planned, there was no-where to stop on the climb despite some good possible shots. I ended up stopping in a little ... Read More »