carbonlife

Hi, I posted a few pics from the Prologue a couple of days ago, now I'm back with some pics from Stage 3, on Sierra Road and on Piedmont. I did a crappy job, I missed almost everyone I wanted to shoot. I posted some pics below.

Is this spingineer? I've seen your picture here and it looks like you (I also met you once last year at a ride).


It was hard to shoot the lead group; the vehicles were in the way.


Fabian Cancellara










Levi drafts Gesink on Piedmont as they cooperate to get the yellow jersey and stage win, respectively.


Mario Cipollini leads the peloton.


The action at Sierra and Piedmont.

cruiserhead

man, great photos! what lens are you using?

pretty lady

carbonlife

Thanks, I was using a Nikon 70-200 f2.8. Which reminds me, I was gonna mention, this was my first time spectating a stage race, and I found the mood to be quite festive and fun. Everyone was enthusiastic, and spectating a climb has got be the most fun. I thought the waiting would be boring, but the anticipation really built up to a crescendo as the endless parade of vehicles in front of the leaders came by. And of course there's more drama on a climb. When they first got to Sierra Road, I heard Hincapie had a 40-second lead, but by the time George went by me, there were already a bunch of riders in front of him; he apparently faded pretty quickly. I didn't notice anyone suffering too badly, but the peloton was really far behind a long string of riders. A cool thing about this stage was that they did a loop so from this one area you could see them come by twice!

The only problem for me was that I came to Sierra Road outta shape (I'm a wussy warm weather rider so I'm in semi-hibernation) and hauling what felt like 20 lbs of camera gear. Luckily my bike has a granny gear so I was able to make it to my pre-scouted shooting location (about a third of the way to the summit).

spingineer

Hi Dave,
I think you did a great job. Excellent pictures, and yes, that is me in the first shot. I was way overdressed. You saw the agony and the struggle of me, trying to make it up the hill.

edit: I am honored to be posted in the same thread with the likes of Cippolini, Levi, and other world class athletes.

You had an interesting strategy. By being much closer to the bottom of the hill, you got the opportunity to see the racers coming across on Piedmont. Since I was at the summit, it took me much longer to get down to the bottom of the hill, and by that time, all the lead riders had already passed. All in all, it was a great, festive day. I really enjoyed that day. My most enjoyable day at a sporting event.

On a side note, Channel 2 covered Tour of California with a 5 minute spot, but it wasn't featured as a sporting event. Go figure.

Gee3

That sucks! Sounds like they are treating it like the circus is in town. I guess Mark Ibanez (is he still around?) isn't into cycling.

That was one thing I liked about living in Dallas. The local popular sport radio station has an announcer that loves to ride. So when I rode my first MS150 ride they got their own team together of listeners/employees and I think we had about 300 riders on the team in 2006. Not bad when your team makes up about 10% of the 3000 riders in the MS ride.

I'd love to see those types of numbers here in the Bay Area Waves to Wine event, especially with the current route over the GG Bridge, up the coast on Hwy 1 and through the Vineyards! Much more challenging (read - mountaonous) and scenic than the MS ride in [flatter] Dallas/Ft. Worth.

I think people are afraid of having to raise the minimum $250. I was too but I ended up raising $1700 in 2006 and about $2300 last year. If your company matches than it's even easier! Unfortuantely for me the Federal Gov't doesn't...

Doh, I sound like a commercial so I'll stop... my bad!

hoo_koo

In the photo below Spingineer, I believe the Astana rider is Chechu Rubiera alongside an obscured Chris Horner. Had the moto not been in the way you would have seen Dave Zabriskie next to them. The Rabobank rider is Paul Martens, who'd been part of the break that had been away much of the way.

Below the great photo of a gasping Cancellara (along with a grimacing Kevin Seeldraeyers) is Slipstream's Christian Vander velde (and I think that's George Hincapie just behind). The photo below that is Credit Agricole's team leader Patrice Halgand.

The HealthNet rider looks like Matt Crane.

The pair of Bissell riders is Ben Jacques-Mayne and Burke Swindlehurst, followed by Slipstream's Tom Danielson. Rock Racing's Doug Ollerenshaw is also seen behind.

I added comments in your gallery for some of the other photos for the riders that I could identify... I hope that's OK.

By the way, these are incredible photos-- shots that Graham Watson would be proud of!