By Chris Wallis on
Sunday, November 23, 2008
3 Years in a row now i have kept coming back to Citadel Park to rush of wind a rider zoom's round the boards of Gents Velodrome.
Two years as photograher and one as a spectator has lead to some good sights, say what you will about 6 Day racing they always make it exciting and the crowd always get behind the riders, and not surprisingly the Local lads, Iljo Keisse always get a good cheer with every charge off the front of the bunch.
But in the same way that wrestling can give a good show but if you think hard you can always see the script behind it and you have to wonder how it is the certainly the last few years Keisse with his partner Bartko has fought off some tough competition and to ensure the excitment the lead changed hands serveral times in the last few minutes of the final race, and Keisse finishing with a flourish wining the sprint on the final lap.
You can never deny the effort that the riders put in, riding fo ...
Read More »
|
By Chris Wallis on
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
due to Man flu i was unable to enjoy a beautiful sunday of sport, either on the bike or with just a pair of trainers. So instead i went out to watch and maybe take a few photos.
So i sent myself out on a lovely 10km course, that i have run more than a few times myself, and settled in but hadn't quite realised how long for. I hadn't anticipated quite as many runners as there was there, instead of a few hundred photos i ended up taking almost 800 and given the ease for me of shooting runners, when compared to cyclists i had a much better chance of getting a lot of the people racing as possible. If not for some unprepared capacity issues, you never think you might run out of space when shooting digital but i made it through almost 14Gb of Memory cards.
you can now see almost all of the photos, still got a few left to edit, on the sports gallery, with the newly added search facility you can look for your race number to hopefully find a picture of you
|
|
|
By Chris Wallis on
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
the prospect of europes highest road mountain pass must be daunting for the riders but exicting from a photographic perspective.
Setting off from my loverly hotel in Spigno Monferrato i set off towards cuneo for the start. A baking hot day in the mountains lie ahead as by mid morning the blue sky was clear of clouds.
Because of the few roads around the area the race route was the only choice and given i was heading for the final climb of the day, the Col Bonnette de Roseland i drove the entire race course.
Starting the long acent of the final climb i kept my eyes open for a place firstly to park and then to take some shots. I ended up passing through the final 5km and ove the top of the climb. It was in my mind to take some shots of decending so as i was walking back up from where i had dumped the car i looked at the corners.
I decied to shot the leaders as the came over the top and the decent was very steep ...
Read More »
|
By Chris Wallis on
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Having got to the start very early, the only benefit of l'hotel la Voiture for the night, i was left cursing a colour blind gendarme who couldn't figure out the passes so parked up in the wrong place, for me at least, to kill some time and study the day.
With two proper climbs and one being the finish definitly a finish only day, and try and find some special bikes brought out for the Alps.
By the time the tour village was coming to life so were the grey clouds that had been massing over head for the last hour or so, a quick rumage through my bag and th wet weather gear was out and despite sticking rigidly to the shorts and flip flops rule
i headed off well wrapped up for the weather. The teams were also not keen on the this weather very few riders making any appearence until the last minute, the Cassie d'painge team but hadn't even turned up by the time i had left.
So a few shots of bikes and wet crowds i decided to head off, avoid th ...
Read More »
|
By Chris Wallis on
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Yet another day to be wrtten off for this tour.
With a complete non apparence of riders with enough time before the start, i was one of the last few press to leave before the start i went away with ome tech shots of bikes only
Driving the course the were more tree lined road, not going to make that mistake again, the only fields of lavendar were so far back from the road it would be hard to come up with shot for them and the climb i was heading for vanished into insignificance so it was just a case of getting to the finish.
This turned ot not to be such an easy task as the caravan was moving so slowly it took almost an hour and a half to the the last 50kms of the course, probably slower than the race would do it.
with the prospect of another sprint finish i set myself up with what would hopefully be a shot of Cav's fith win.
With the colombia train on the front coming into the last 1 1/2km it looked likely but what can't see when you a ...
Read More »
|
By Chris Wallis on
Friday, July 18, 2008
having looked at the course today i thought it was possible for at least one shot on course and to make it to the finish for what should be antoher sprint finish.
While driving the course was lined with beautiful tree lined avenues and having driven through a few i finally decied to stop hoping for a nice shot of the bunch rolling though.
Sadly this was not to be the peloton were lined by too many cars to get a nice clean shot so what looking like my only stop for the day was wasted. So i decied to head straight for the finish
Just to rub in my choice of stops for the day the decent of the only climb of the day was a beautiful curving one with great corners just perfect for lining the bunch out.
What followed was a little bit of a stressful journey to the finish, having pulled off course on to the motorway all the way to the finish the satnav was getting confused, it turned out there was a new road and this was causing chaos
so with the ...
Read More »
|
By Chris Wallis on
Thursday, July 17, 2008
having left the pyranesse properly now its was time for a few flat stages to let the overal contenders rest up and the sprinters to have something to do before the alps.
Today was not a stage to disapoint 1 4th CAtergory climb and the a roll all the way to the finish and with a tail wind the bunch was having a good day, THe standard break went up the road
but was never let go far enouugh not to be pulled back in. With a suitable distance left the sprinters teams started to pull them back in, and with Mark Cavendish looking on form it was no surprise to see Team Colombia on the front
Mark was not going to disappoint his team or his fans and left the compeition standing to take his third win this tour.
Sadly this was to be overshadowed by the arret of Ricco at the start and the withdrawal of the entire Saunier Duval team before the end of the stage.
|
By Chris Wallis on
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Read More »
|
By Chris Wallis on
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
i realise that for almost 180 riders, and all the accociated organisation the tour is already well under way but for me and commitments of another full time job this years tour has started on tv for me but it will start proper a week today when i finally join the throng of press and photographers in the mad dash to be the first to get the story for the day.
By missing the first week i miss the first few flat stages and what turned out to be a surprising time trial but i join it in time for what should be the decisive stages of the tour, and what i am sure is going to be my favourite stage of the tour, a little hint it has 21 hairpins 
So if you are looking for my photos then you will have to wait until this time next week so plese check back then
|