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 . . .

Tour of Missouri 2009

I was planning to update when I was done editing, but seeing as it has been a week and I am still not done editing, I have chosen to share some of my favorites from the week.

Jelly Belly handlebars. I love this shot. Do not be surprised to find it hanging on my wall in the near future.

George Hincape at the start of Stage 1 in St. Louis in his new National Champion Jersey

Team Columbia controlling the race as it passes through Lafayette Square.

Yaroslav Popovych making it look easy, as he travels through Soulard

Local police leading the way through downtown St. Louis, past Anheuser Busch brewery.

Mark Cavendish at the end of Stage 1, in yellow and posing on his new motorcycle for the crowd

Cavendish, Hincape, and VandeVelde leaving St. Genevieve. Christian lasted about another 15 be minutes before having to abandon the race with his broken left wrist.

Cavendish after his sprint win in Cape Girardeau, Stage 2

I had a lot of fun this year playing with the reflections in the riders glasses. You can see here how happy fans were to meet and receive autographs from the riders.

Another photo that I am in love with. It is interesting to see the variety between the shoes for a majority of the riders.

Bernhard Eisel at rider sign-in in Farmington, MO.

George Hincape signing autographs before the start of Stage 3 in Farmington

The Mavic service cars. Constantly seemed to travel behind them between finish and start stages.

Cavendish on the podium for the last time of 2009 in Rolla. He did not start stage 4 the next morning in St. James, because of a pulmonary infection. Last I heard he is still recovering . . .

Thor Hushovd enjoying his first win and first yellow jersey at the Tour of Missouri.

The peloton being led into the Stage 4 feedzone, by Marco Pinotti of Team Columbia-HTC

A bunch coming through the Jefferson City circuit. . . this is before the nasty crash that happened just east of the capital building.

David Zabriskie, National Time Trial Champion, showing his stuff at the Stage 5 TT in Sedalia.

Levi Leipheimer coming into the finish in Sedalia.

Thor Hushovd wearing the green during the time trial, having lost the yellow to JJ Haedo.

David Zabriskie signing autographs in the yellow jersey, which he gained by winning the individual time trial.

The peloton, led by a small breakaway, barreling through the streets of Kansas City, MO. What you can not see is that I found one of only 3 Starbucks in their city, and they had closed that day, because of the tour. If they had only known that the race will ALWAYS bring in business (even if the road is closed, just ask Park Ave Coffee)

One of the many future riders hanging out in the crowd in Missouri.

Christian VandeVelde (Garmin-2008 ToMO winner) presenting David Zabriskie (Garmin -2009 ToMO winner) with the yellow jersey and his Norton Wine (to the right is Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, who is largely responsible for bringing in another professional sport to St. Louis)

Team Saxo Bank, ended up winning the overall team title taking it from last years winner Columbia HTC.

I want to again thank everyone who was a part of this race, from organizers to fans . . . The work and dedication that goes into making this race is amazing. Many Tours of this caliber are put on by entire countries, yet we (and California) are showing that the US can not only create a grand tour here, but we can have 2, highlighting the diversity of our Nation.

Night for now

unparralled day in sports

As many of you know, I have been an avid cycling fan for years, and quickly fell in love with having a tour here in Missouri. The speed at which it has gained respect in the sport still amazes me. In my time of following (and promoting it to fellow St. Louisians) I have been blessed to network with many of the people responcible for bringing cycling here. On Thursday night, I was offered an amazing chance to ride in a VIP car (which I honestly thought was nearly impossible, so again thank you) during the Sedalia Time Trial. Originally our car was going to follow Franco Pellizotti (41) and then pull over to let a few riders pass, then pick back up behind Jens Voigt (34). We expected to spend about 3-4 mins on the side watching. After about 1.3 mins, we had to get in the car because the men between the two of them were booking it. One of those men was Kanstantsin Siutsou. Our car decided to follow Siutsou and let the other car follow Jens (the roads were really tight and with all of the passing during this time trial, it was probably best) before we had caught up with Siutsou he had already passed one of the Liquigas rider's in front of him. When we cought up with him, the field looked like this

That is Siutsou in the forground, Franco Pellozotti between the cars in the "valley" and Anibal Borrajo (124) at the top of the next hill.

As you can see it became very crowded on the road at times. I believe that is Pellozotti's team car in front of the police car.

Siutsou passing Pellozotti, as you can see they are very close to catching Borrajo.

Our car behind Borrajo after Siutsou had passed him. We had to wait until their was an ample amout of room between them, so Borrajo could not draft and so we were not in his way.

One of the final turns before we came into the "tight" part of the course. For a small section of road, the race goes both directions on the road, so if a rider is posed to pass in this section it becomes a nightmare for the drivers who are responsible for their riders. Some of the smaller teams did not have follow cars for all of their riders, this was the case for Borrajo. Borrajo made back excelent time in the last 1k if the course, and he caught up with our car befor the turn off of the two way section, and was trying to get our attention. When our driver saw him, she quickly tried to get out of his way. The road had a sharp turn which all of us tried to make at the same time, unfortunately we all tried to take the same path. Our driver made the right hand turn as quick as possible, while trying to pull over to the side of the road, but Borrajo tried to pass us on the inside of the turn, instead of going around, and ended up crashing into the side of our car. So, what began as a "once in a lifetime opportunity", truly (I pray) was a ONCE in a lifetime event. Because it is not often that a race car and driver connect in a crash like that . . .

The crash was not to horrific, Borrajo climbed back on his bike and finished the TT, but his time was ruined. To be honest, I was more worried about our driver, who looked like she was in shock. All in all, it was an amazing trip and I would not change any of it (sorry Borrajo, but it makes the retelling so much better to reveal your crash)

That is it for now . . . I am off to catch up with editing and to catch my bus to KC for the final stage.

Brei

( I dare any other organization to provide a maore amazing experience. no really, NHL I dare you)

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. . .

Tour of Missouri . Hermann . Stage 6

For the few (many) whom i have not shared the news with, God has blessed me with a new camera, and if it couldn't be better timed, he gave it to me a week and a half before the tour of missouri.
with that being said, I am going to break the photo's up into multiple post simply because the number of shots is overwhelming (i was only there for two of the seven days and i took 1000 shots.


so lets begin at the start of stage 6, in hermann mo. This may be one of my new favorite "little towns". it had the quaintest coffee shop ever.




feeling kind of artistic before the race. I may be persuaded to say liquigas has the coolest looking bikes.




this is the starting corner of Stage 6.




i seriously love the look of the Garmin-Chipotle cars. I was taking some detail shots of the plates, when lo and behold, look who snuck into the top corner of the photo; Mr. George Hincape




this kid was so cute. . . he is waiting (with about 50 other people, all adults) out side of the Columbia RV, to meet Mark Cavendish (who went on to win the stage later in the day)





Christian Vande Velde, looking like he is having a smashing time. There is a story to the laugh, mostly it has to do with the other racers feeling a bit sarcastic, and giving him a 15 ft. start advantage.