Memorial Day road cycling race (9 photos)

[jorgemonkey]

I learned about a local road bike race that was going on for Memorial day, and I thought it would be fun to wake up on my one day off at 6:30am and go photograph it, and to work on my technique & try some ideas out. Overall I had a blast, and learned a few things in the process.

1. I need a second body. My D70 backup's CF pins are worn & need to be replaced, and so I was switching lenses all the time trying different shots/angles all that stuff. Would have been much easier if I had a second D2h, which after talking to the wife is gonna happen pretty soon

2. Time to get an external battery pack for my flash. I had my rechargeable AA's (or AAA's whichever it is) fully charged last night, and between firing off a bunch of flashes in high speed mode, or fill flash, or whatever mode I was in I went through both sets in a couple hours. I was also switching off between using flash & no flash depending on where I was vs the sun location. Using fill flash is something I really need to work on, since I want to get to a point where I can use my flash in manual mode comfortably & quickly, since I'll know what the resulting exposure will be.

3. I'm picking up a 300 F2.8 sometime this year. There was a lot of time when shooting the races on the straights where I would have loved the bokeh that the 300 produces at 2.8. Of course a 400 would be nice too but that'll be a couple years. Or a really good paying job, whichever comes first. Having my 70-200 worked very well, but there was a few situations where I was really wishing for a little more reach.

On to the photos:

Mens Elite 3 come down the straights on lap 2


Rider from Trek Bike Stores, the race sponsor, midway through the race


The race Peloton goes through turn 1


Team Specialized leads the pack in lap 2 of the Mens Elite Cat 5 group


Another Cat 5 racer in the same turn


Team Specialized takes the win in a close Cat 5 race


This Cat 5 racer took an early lead and held onto it for a few laps, before the pack caught up to him. For a while he was a good 150 yards or so ahead of everyone


Women's Cat 3-4 take turn one during the first lap


A closeup of one of the Velo Bella girls, one of the big all female racing clubs in the area

[JSPhoto]

The 70-200 did pretty well. Your getting the idea and these look pretty good.

JS

[drg]

You are indeed getting some good ones. The peloton shots show good cornering and I like the third and fourth pics the best. Too bad about that white line at the bottom of photo 4, it could be cropped I suppose. It just sort of 'slows down' the photo.

Keep up the good work.

[splats]

Nice Pics ! Dam those cat 5's look al ot more serious then I ever did when I was a Cat 4.

interesting on the last one , she has the the top brake levers on also I didn't think they were USCF legal ? But I love her Mojo on her head tube.

[Old Timer]

Looks to me like you made it worth it to get up at that hour on your day off. I didn't make it up till about 11 am on Monday but than I didn't hit the rack till almost 3 am. I guess it all evens out. Love them all but I think #4 takes the trophy in this group. Nice going.