Tour de France 2010

[Franglais]

I didn't have to go far this year to see the Tour - about 5 miles to a long climb on a quiet road just after Orsay. But they came up on me quietly - at this early stage in the day, Contador and Schreck were 50 yards in front of the main group, having a conversation. If it hadn't been for the helicopter overhead I would have missed them.

All photos D300 + 18-200, full JPG's straight out of the camera downsized. I did RAW as well but the lighting was ideal in the spot I chose and I didn't have to make any modification

[Greg McCary]

Looks like you weren't the only one taking pictures. You did very well for the brief time you had to shot.

[Frog]

I saw them being friendly while watching some of today.
Quite the battle they had going in previous days and next year should be very interesting.

Glad that incident the other day didn't spoil their friendly rivalry.
Thanks for sharing the pics.

Hard spectator sport for the spectators.

[Franglais]

I chose my spot carefully, having studied the day's route on the website and visited parts of it with Google Streetview.

- An uphill part to slow the riders down.
- Outside of a town to reduce the number of spectators who might get in my way and wear distracting clothes (like the guy in the orange shirt)
- Neutral background (woods in this case)
- Good lighting coming from the right direction (clear sky behind me)
- Somewhere accessible where you don't have to drive and walk for miles before and after. On race day the route is a forbidden corridor 60 miles long that cuts the country in half

Once on the spot there is a LONG wait during which I set up the camera, in particular the autofocus system, and practice on the vehicles coming past, all of which are part of the Tour. However the cyclists are not like a vehicle and there is no telling what is going to happen when they arrive. I was expecting a compact mass of cyclists with Contador somewhere in the middle and finally there's just the two of them almost hidden till the last moment behind the motorbikes.

[Photo-John]

What a great opportunity, Charles! Every year I get more interested in eventually shooting the Tour. I like your last photo the best. It's a nice shot of them being casual and friendly and the photographers make a great background for the spectacle of the event.

What stage was this?

I really enjoyed this Tour. I thought the Contador / Shleck battle was a great one and it's really left me wondering what will happen next year.

[Franglais]

This done yesterday on the last day (Longjumeau - Paris), on the Rue de Versailles coming out of Orsay (48.713463,2.177739).

The Tour is a rather frustrating sport for spectators. If you go to the start or finish of the day's course then you can't get anywhere near the stars because of the security and the spectators. Out on the road you can always find a quiet place where you can get close but they are moving and you only have a clear view for an instant due to the motorbikes escorting them plus the other cyclists.