Disappointment Brings Forth New Opportunities

As some of you may know, the Tour of Missouri has been canceled due to a lack of funding, by the last minute removal of funds by the State's Department of Tourism. (if you would like more information please ask, though this is not the time or place to launch into the details and history)

with that, the only opportunity I had this year to shoot Professional level cyclists flew out the window (Tour of Missouri was 1 of only 2 top level bike races in the nation) and there is still a part of me that is heart broken and I have basically abandoned any hope of getting to any races to photograph riders, because all of the big races (UCI professional) left this season are over in Europe (like the Tour de France) and that means all of the racers are over there as well.

That all changed a couple of weeks ago. While driving through mid-town, I passed some cyclists out on the road wearing Kelly Benefits and Jelly Belly jerseys, both teams are mid-level professional cycling teams, and I could not figure out what they were doing in town, since the Tour of Missouri had been canceled. Soon after, I discovered that STL was hosting a set of small bike races, the tour de grove. As you can guess I immediately rearranged my schedule in order to make it out for both the Saturday Mid-Town Sprints and Sunday's Tour de Grove.

I found out about the races from the twitter of rider Jeremy Powers, of team Jelly Belly, about 5 mins before the race began. I made great time getting down to it, but during the drive clouds began to over take the sky . . .

and as you can tell it began raining . . . raining HARD. The floodgates opened just as I was arriving at the race.

The race was in one of my favorite parts of Saint Louis, on Locust in Mid-Town.

it was so good to see fans come out in the rain to watch the race. you can not see it here, but the road is almost completely flooded on the edges where the fans were.

that is Jeremy Powers on the right, and the race winner Brad Huff (a Missouri resident) on the left.

more photo's from Sunday's events to come . . .

More From the Tour

So i just realized, that i never came back to share more of the tour. All of these are from the final stage in St. Louis. If you have not already heard, the circut had to be cut short due to severe flooding in forest park, but in the end it all worked out for the better, because i happen to get a prime shooting spot.

Before the race, this woman was trying to get the autograph of every person from Columbia and Garmin (which made her a perfect person to stand next to) she was really sweet, and ended up talking to Marco Pinotti in intalian, which was quite a shock for him.


Mark Cavendish talking to the same woman, she just seems to have a way with these professional cyclists.


These were the two who lead most of the stage. the rider on the left, Jeremy Powers, took the title for most aggressive rider for the day.



Mark Cavendish, supporting the green jersey, which he is now the current champion. He seemed to have a way of always being in my frame. I have at least two other photos, where he shot through a shot i was taking of someone else.


The whole of the peloton coming through the central west end.


Michael Rodgers and George Hincape of Team Columbia.


the celebration of Team Columbia, after winning the overall team title.



So i said i was only going to be posting photo's from St. Louis. I was wrong. This is one of the podium shots from St. Charles. That is Christian Vande Velde in Yellow, Mark Cavendish in Green, and Bernhard Eisel in Red. (Though i guess since you can not see the colors it probably does not matter to much)
Below the podium pic, is a progression shot of Mark Cavendish's sprint to the finish in St. Chuck (which he won). Though i doubt Cav needs anymore of an ego boost, i can see why many announcers have dared to call him "the fastest man in the world".






That is all for now. I have a few more which might be put up. We will see. . .