Tour of Utah...
 

Hey guys. I'm gonna sneak out of work for a few hour tommorow, ( stage 5, queen stage)and try to get some pics of the pros who will be hammering up our canyons tommorow.

The stage includes five climbs. Two notables are Sundance hillclimb, 3000ft in about 9 miles will come about 50 miles in, and a mountain finish up Little Cottonwood canyon, 3500ft in just under 8.5 miles, and an average grade of 8.2%

Anyway, I want to get myself in a good spot for some great pics. Which I will post later this week.

So my question is what kind of shots would you like to see? Swithback shots with scenery and groups of riders, which will put me near the middle of the race, or shots of these guys in agony, as they push themselves up the STEEP mountain top finish? I can't decide.

Riders will include Tyler Hamilton, Tom danielson, Freddie Rodriguez, Danny Pate, Victor Hugo Pena, and other great riders.

Any tips on shooting these guys? how to setup a shot, etc; is greatly appreciated.:thumb:

Oh ya, I ride these canyons fairly often, so I know where to go, just not a very good photographer.

Tips?

Get as low as possible.

Really? Why? Just for effect, or does it make for a better shot?

Pan shots with a large aperture.

Because every shot of a professional cyclist not taken on a motorcycle has been looking up their nostrils.

It's a dynamic perspective that isolates the rider and often provides are more clutter-free background.

Werd.

Just got back from watching stage 3 in SLC. It was a 60 minute crit plus 3 laps. What a crazy race! I had the perfect place to watch...right at the start finish line. The race went off with no accedents. Team chipolte paced the race almost the entire time and then lost it in the end. Tomorrow will be a great day to watch they are riding right down the street from my house. Blake Caldwell, Garmin/Chipotle is in the lead until tomorrow. Tyler Hamilton from Rock Racing is 9th over all right now. I will post pictures from today in a little while.

Was able to watch a little of stage 4 today. Had the perfect spot...right after the mile 70 feed station so I was able to get a few feed bags and water bottles that got thrown at me. The riders don't really eat anything out of the bags because we got a bunch of clif shots and the clif shot blocks.
The stage today seems like a crazy ride! 99 miles with 15k of climbing. There was at least a 15 min gap between the first rider and the last rider at the 70 mile mark. After watching them all go by we got in the car to watch them come over the top of the climb and we past by to riders who were holding onto a car getting towed up the hill for I would say about a mile. And no they were not at the window getting worked on, they were holding on near the back of the car. We were going to yell 'cheaters' at them but know how hard of a climb they were on (I've done this section before) I figured no big deal. Very cool to see real racing going on here in Utah!

Rock racing has got everything very tricked out. All of their support cars are black Cadillac’s with the rock racing logos all over them. Very cool looking. Kind of funny though is the rock racing owner has this big security group all around him. Like 5 or 6 guy all in dark suits with ear pieces in everywhere he goes. I wonder what he thinks is going to happen to him at a bike race??

He seems to think that people won't look at him and see how awesome he is.

You looked, so it worked.

My 75mi Tour of Utah-inspired ride today was a real doozy! We first bagged Big Cottonwood Canyon (14.7mi @ 7.8%; 4.5K ft) and then went to the top of Little Cottonwood (8.4mi @ 9.2%; 3.4K ft) to watch the mountain top race finish.

Anyhow, what about the race?! Those dudes really haul. However, it was the time gaps that were most impressive to me. The leaders really put it to the peleton and those that got spit out of the back of the lead groups.

Here's the stage 4 finishers and their times: http://www.tourofutah.com/uploads/St...%20Results.pdf

Let's see some pictures of the race!

* During the LCC ascent, we bumped into Saul Raisin. What a character! He says he's riding 7 days a week and had some strong legs to prove it (and some sweet gear!). In fact, as one would've guessed, he wasn't phased at all with the pace up the mountainside and chatted up lots of riders who were on their way up to watch the finishline.

* Oh, and one of the Rock River trucks made a wrong turn and headed up the wrong canyon! Ha ha.

If any of you Utah guys saw the news on ch 2...I heard they interviewed Tyler Hamliton about todays stage and he said it was just as hard if not harder than mountain stages of the tdf. I missed the interview so if someone can find it or recorded it please post on here. Huge for cycling here in Utah!

All bikes/tours shots done to dead. What can one improve?

Funny shots, that's what I always enjoy. Pissing on the road side, discreete angle of course.

Pile-ups.

From an artistic point of view, think of the route they will be passing through, and think of good backgrounds u'd like to include in your shots, camp there, and yes, u will have to rush from spot to spot. The photographing Pros do that.

The real question is why you didn't htfu and participate in the '300 Warriors' ride for the Tour of Utah. Put down the camera and ride, Susan.

http://www.tourofutah.com/index.php?...=race_warriors

The 300 sold out so fast that it was pretty much impossible to get in. I rode with a lot of them last Saturday in the ulcer and it sounded like you had to know someone to get in. Besides who wants to pay $150 to ride crazy hard century unsupported? I can do that for free.

Like the one my friend took?

http://www.velonews.com/files/images/stevic_hot.jpg

Nice that local boy Jeff Louder won the big, climbing stage yesterday. Looks like Hamilton finished 12 minutes behind.

Cyclingnews has a good story and photographs here:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road.php?.../tourofutah084

...and another story from the local press (no pics):

http://www.sltrib.com/sports/ci_10230124

I got to see the Ogden to SLC finish on Wednesday. Talked with Saul Raisin for about 15 minutes and he let me take a pic with him. The sprint for 3rd-4th and 5th was intense. Blake Caldwell won that stage.
Pretty cool seeing the Pro's up close.
I've got a few pics from that stage but they are kind of boring.

Update...

Tour of Utah, 2010 Edition
http://www.tourofutah.com/

Here's my pics. Anyone else?

Big George and Levi warming up. It's great to see some big-time riders at our "little" race.
http://a.imageshack.us/img405/6048/dsc00411sh.jpg
http://a.imageshack.us/img839/5152/dsc00421y.jpg

George's BMC decked out with the expected stars and stripes theme, but check out the one blue pedal and one red pedal. Nice.
http://a.imageshack.us/img405/2677/dsc00417ea.jpg

Here's George headed to the Prologue finish line (short 2.8m out and back course). Good enough for a top 8 time.
http://a.imageshack.us/img718/6807/dsc00425ng.jpg

Does Levi look more mountain biker or road bike racer?!
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201....ap/index.html
http://a.imageshack.us/img705/1988/dsc00431m.jpg

"Who invited the ringer?"
http://a.imageshack.us/img180/6779/dsc00428dw.jpg

Levi chatting up Mancebo, last year's winner. Since Rock Racing is sorta no longer, Mancebo is racing under the name of a local team.
http://a.imageshack.us/img33/3426/dsc00434rm.jpg

Levi on course. Top 10 time.
http://a.imageshack.us/img440/9843/dsc00439zl.jpg
http://a.imageshack.us/img801/2801/dsc00440f.jpg
http://a.imageshack.us/img202/2230/dsc00452z.jpg

I'll have one of those. Two of those. And three of those.

http://a.imageshack.us/img405/9207/dsc00414hc.jpg

I'm the guy in the orange jersey (farthest over) facing up course taking this pic of Levi.

Awesome Pics....thanks for sharing.

root for joe dombrowski of trek/livestrong, he's a local kid w mad talent