Wallis Photos Blog

Chichester 10KM and a lot of Photos

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 07:00:00 GMT

due to Man flu i was unable to enjoy a beautiful sunday of sport, either on the bike or with just a pair of trainers. So instead i went out to watch and maybe take a few photos.

So i sent myself out on a lovely 10km course, that i have run more than a few times myself, and settled in but hadn't quite realised how long for. I hadn't anticipated quite as many runners as there was there, instead of a few hundred photos i ended up taking almost 800 and given the ease for me of shooting runners, when compared to cyclists i had a much better chance of getting a lot of the people racing as possible. If not for some unprepared capacity issues, you never think you might run out of space when shooting digital but i made it through almost 14Gb of Memory cards.

you can now see almost all of the photos, still got a few left to edit, on the sports gallery, with the newly added search facility you can look for your race number to hopefully find a picture of you

Publshed Pic

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:00:00 GMT

Jus to make sure my works gets a proper airing on other sites please find some of my picutres published here

http://www.protournews.com/news/article/mps/uan/1137

www.protournews.com/news/article/mps/uan/1138

www.protournews.com/news/article/mps/uan/1139

www.protournews.com/news/article/mps/uan/1133

Cuneo to Jausiers

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:00:00 GMT

the prospect of europes highest road mountain pass must be daunting for the riders but exicting from a photographic perspective.

Setting off from my loverly hotel in Spigno Monferrato i set off towards cuneo for the start. A baking hot day in the mountains lie ahead as by mid morning the blue sky was clear of clouds.

Because of the few roads around the area the race route was the only choice and given i was heading for the final climb of the day, the Col Bonnette de Roseland i drove the entire race course.

Starting the long acent of the final climb i kept my eyes open for a place firstly to park and then to take some shots. I ended up passing through the final 5km and ove the top of the climb. It was in my mind to take some shots of decending so as i was walking back up from where i had dumped the car i looked at the corners.

I decied to shot the leaders as the came over the top and the decent was very steep and meant taking anything on the way was gong to be touch and go. I got some great shots over the top and then headed back towards the car and the corner i had seen and was rewarded with some nice shots of them coming down, althought the hit ratio was quite low i deleted quite a few pics from today

Embrun to Prato Nevoso

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 07:00:00 GMT

Having got to the start very early, the only benefit of l'hotel la Voiture for the night, i was left cursing a colour blind gendarme who couldn't figure out the passes so parked up in the wrong place, for me at least, to kill some time and study the day.
With two proper climbs and one being the finish definitly a finish only day, and try and find some special bikes brought out for the Alps.

By the time the tour village was coming to life so were the grey clouds that had been massing over head for the last hour or so, a quick rumage through my bag and th wet weather gear was out and despite sticking rigidly to the shorts and flip flops rule
i headed off well wrapped up for the weather. The teams were also not keen on the this weather very few riders making any appearence until the last minute, the Cassie d'painge team but hadn't even turned up by the time i had left.
So a few shots of bikes and wet crowds i decided to head off, avoid the race rotue and going h'ors course to the finish. The plan was to get to the entrance point of the race course before the caravan and despite some italian job driving that micheal cane would have been proud of
i was denied, and then somehow got waved into a big gap into the caravan. After getting stopped, and praying that i wasn't going to get told off or punished i finally made it to the finish.
In the rush to get from the car to the finish line i failed to take any more than the essentials, not see waterproofs for me of the cameras as essential at that sunny point.
I managed to set mysefl up with a nice spot on the stantion looking over the finish and with the use of my bib to keep me dry and some barriers to keep the cameras dry i waited and was duly rewarded with some nice shots of the finish and manged to stay reasonably dry.
I then waited for more than a few hours for the moutain to clear so i could make the long journey to my hotel for the next two nights, getting in just after midnight and then sleeping till noon the next day

Nimes to Dignes Les Bains

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 07:00:00 GMT

Yet another day to be wrtten off for this tour.
With a complete non apparence of riders with enough time before the start, i was one of the last few press to leave before the start i went away with ome tech shots of bikes only
Driving the course the were more tree lined road, not going to make that mistake again, the only fields of lavendar were so far back from the road it would be hard to come up with shot for them and the climb i was heading for vanished into insignificance so it was just a case of getting to the finish.
This turned ot not to be such an easy task as the caravan was moving so slowly it took almost an hour and a half to the the last 50kms of the course, probably slower than the race would do it.
with the prospect of another sprint finish i set myself up with what would hopefully be a shot of Cav's fith win.
With the colombia train on the front coming into the last 1 1/2km it looked likely but what can't see when you are wait for the finish line photo is whats going on exaclty.
Sadly it was not Cav sitting on the back of the colombia riders and Friere came out to cross the line. Then while waiting for the podium shots Cav rolled across the line a few mins down, having been dropped on the last climb and unable to get back on.

Narbonne to Nimes

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 07:00:00 GMT

having looked at the course today i thought it was possible for at least one shot on course and to make it to the finish for what should be antoher sprint finish.
While driving the course was lined with beautiful tree lined avenues and having driven through a few i finally decied to stop hoping for a nice shot of the bunch rolling though.
Sadly this was not to be the peloton were lined by too many cars to get a nice clean shot so what looking like my only stop for the day was wasted. So i decied to head straight for the finish
Just to rub in my choice of stops for the day the decent of the only climb of the day was a beautiful curving one with great corners just perfect for lining the bunch out.
What followed was a little bit of a stressful journey to the finish, having pulled off course on to the motorway all the way to the finish the satnav was getting confused, it turned out there was a new road and this was causing chaos
so with the finish drawing closer i was stuck in traffic getting a little concerned for getting any pictures for the day. Thankfully once the traffic was clear and some nice fast roads the finish became a lot more of a possibility and i got there with maybe 15 or 20mins to spare
but because it was such a fast straight finish we were so far back it made a good shot hard, which was gutting as Cav was not to disappoint two days in a row, number 4!!

lavelanet to Narbonne

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 07:00:00 GMT

having left the pyranesse properly now its was time for a few flat stages to let the overal contenders rest up and the sprinters to have something to do before the alps.
Today was not a stage to disapoint 1 4th CAtergory climb and the a roll all the way to the finish and with a tail wind the bunch was having a good day, THe standard break went up the road
but was never let go far enouugh not to be pulled back in. With a suitable distance left the sprinters teams started to pull them back in, and with Mark Cavendish looking on form it was no surprise to see Team Colombia on the front
Mark was not going to disappoint his team or his fans and left the compeition standing to take his third win this tour.
Sadly this was to be overshadowed by the arret of Ricco at the start and the withdrawal of the entire Saunier Duval team before the end of the stage.

Lannemezan to Foix

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:00:00 GMT

Count down to Le Tour

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 07:00:00 GMT

i realise that for almost 180 riders, and all the accociated organisation the tour is already well under way but for me and commitments of another full time job this years tour has started on tv for me but it will start proper a week today when i finally join the throng of press and photographers in the mad dash to be the first to get the story for the day.

By missing the first week i miss the first few flat stages and what turned out to be a surprising time trial but i join it in time for what should be the decisive stages of the tour, and what i am sure is going to be my favourite stage of the tour, a little hint it has 21 hairpins

So if you are looking for my photos then you will have to wait until this time next week so plese check back then

Paris Roubaix.....A Vast Improvement in Map reading....but not mine

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 07:00:00 GMT

Having already notched up one of the Spring Classics i was looking forward to Paris Roubaix, cobbles, mud, rain and some good hard cycling.

Sadly i was to be disappointed, at least from the persepctive of mud and rain, continuing its run of sunny and dusty races the 106th edition set off to a dry start.

Having made an early start me and my co-pilot Mike took a few little detours of a direct route to Compiegne - the first to the famous Vimy Ridge and the Canadian War Memorial - Vimy and then finally a dogleg out towards Belgium to get a quick look the Trouée d'Arenberg and figure out whether the stop would be possible the following day.

After a brief meeting setting out the rules from ASO for the next i collecting my race programme and bib and headed off to find sime dinner and bed.

Thankfully the 11am rollout meant a civilised wake up and a two minute drive to the start, despite the Grey cloud's threatening overhead the whether resisted and stayed dry. After a few quick shots round the team buses we were in the car and heading off to the first stop on a section of Cobbles.

A combination of some slightly hairy driving and some fantastic map reading by Mike saw us fly through two stops to see the early break reach its maximum distance from the Peloton and make it all the way to the top of the Trouée d'Arenberg. If you are gonig to see a Paris Roubaix i can recommend doing the section at least once as it really does have to been seen to be believed 2.5Km packed with crowds the whole way.

It was then due to a fair measure of luck and another display of fanatastic map reading we managed to jump ahead of the race again and pause just before the last 5 sections of Cobbles, the point at which the race is usually slimmed down enough that the winner will be one of a few. True to race form a trio of Ballna Cancellera and Boonen were off the front and the winner was going to be one of them.

It was now a dash to the Velodrome, hoping to jump ahead of them as they looped out as we cut up, a breif moment of horn honking as serveral cars were held up trying to do the same thing, but eventually granted safe passage onto the race ahead of the pack,

We were graced with a great finish and Boonen jumping the other two to take his second roubaix cobble