By Chris Wallis on Thursday, March 13, 2008

The continetal cycling season has started in earnest with Paris Nice  and Tirreno-Adriatico providing the pro's with their first test of form. This all leads up to the spring classics 4 weeks of racing in some historic races, i will be following them for certainly a few of these races so look out for my pictures and tales here and also here so look out for this as soon as april gets here.

 

Having filled the cycling off season with some fun at basketball courts their season is almost over so thanks to th ... Read More »

By Chris Wallis on Sunday, December 02, 2007

its always a struggle to get photos published, cycling photography being such a hard area to get a break in but please find my photos published on the following sites

 

 

www.londoncyclesport.com/news/article/mps/UAN/3639/v/1/sp/

 

www.londoncyclesport.com/news/article/mps/UAN/3632/v/1/sp/

 

www.britishcycling.org.uk/web/site/BC/tra/EventReports2007/20071125_Gent_6.asp

By Chris Wallis on Wednesday, November 28, 2007

After seeing the 6 day last year as a aspectator i was keen to go back and capture the excitement on camera and this year i got the chance, at least for 2 nights of it

After a short dirve and a slight longer ferry trip we were zipped our way along E40 towards Gent on a slight cold winter evening, with the life saving tom tom guiding us safely to the hotel we checked in and got an early night ready for a long day tomorrow.

Knowing that the raing didn't start till at least 7 we had plenty of time to do some exploring and tick off a few things off the "things to do in Gent "list

First on the list was a trip of Plum Vainqueur bike shop, which luck would have it was only a few hundred metres from the hotel.

After a look round the museum and the purchase of a souvenir hat myself and Mike came out furnished with a short ride to work up our appitites for lunch

Read More »

By Chris Wallis on Wednesday, October 31, 2007

I reaslise that the summer racing season has now finished its time for some training, some practise and maybe the odd muddy shoot of cyclocross

 

 

 

By Chris Wallis on Sunday, July 29, 2007

Stage 20 Marcoussis to Paris – and finally I can go home

Ironically the day I was looking forward to was the poorest day for photography. The Start was not looking good when it started raining and didn’t look like stopping, and then in between showers all we got was overly bright clouds, not making for the best backgrounds.
The roll out was on some very ugly roads so it was a quick drive straight into Paris and then onto the closed roads of the Rue D’rivoli and the Place de la Concorde.
I took up position at the opposite end to the Arc D’Triumph so that I could shoot coming onto and leaving the Champs Elyesse. I am putting my lack of shots down to some real tiredness. I got the light wrong a few times, motorbikes got out of the way to late so I could focus on the riders properly. In short all the things that I have done, learnt and practiced over the last few weeks went out the window and had to concentrate ... Read More »

By Chris Wallis on Saturday, July 28, 2007

Today was going to be quite a relaxed stage, which I was so grateful for, no need to drive a couple of hundred km’s in one day. I skipped the start all together and went straight to the finish, didn’t feel like trying to get shots on course and find somewhere good, and struggled getting access to the course due to some poor direction.
As the British guys were quite down on the GC (general Classification) I had to get to the finish line quickly to catch Geriant Thomas crossing and then it was time for lunch and sit down ready for the action.
The finish was the same as yesterday, and although it threatened to rain for most of the day when the sun did come out it was coming straight down the finish. Thankfully as it was single riders coming across the line I was able to sit closer, and although surround by guys with 500mm lens I got the shots I wanted.
Not all the riders were kind to the photographers and weaved across the finish straight and al ... Read More »

By Chris Wallis on Friday, July 27, 2007

Cahors to Angolueme Another long day in the car

Yet another slightly boring stage that was destined to end in a breakaway and a sprint finish, and yet another long straight shooting almost into the sun.
Thinking that the one route would be quicker an easier I decided to go in front of the race to the off course exit point and get a shot before then and drive straight to the finish.
The first shot I took was a bit of an experiment having found some slightly interesting towers in the background I messed about with the shutter speed to get a blurred shot, for the first time I got some filters out to counteract the bright sun, an ND x2 and a CPL (as I only have the ND2 for that size) and dropped the shutter speed down to 1/20. Still not 100% sold on the shot but worth while for something different and thinking on my feet.
The rest of the day was a frustrating journey in the car, with some poorly signposted off course route so only with lu ... Read More »

By Chris Wallis on Thursday, July 26, 2007

After the thrills of the mountains with lots of choices to stop and take shot today’s flat’ish stage left me wanting it to be the weekend and the time trial and the Paris stage to go.

I headed out in front of the race looking for somewhere to stop and the only spot I found, a nice downhill stretch with a little country church on it, but it was far too close to the finish that there was no chance to make it back in front of the race in time. Having spent the last few days driving through farm land filled with sunflowers, I was hoping for a classic cycling shot “riders with sunflowers” but was denied all the sunflowers were either facing the wrong way or looking more than a little dead.

This left me with a hope that there was a nice corner in the last km of the finish to get a shot on, sadly in was almost 900m straight with no real corner to catch them coming into.

I was stuck with t ... Read More »

By Chris Wallis on Wednesday, July 25, 2007

a bad day for the tour

I decided to maximise my chance of getting to the final climb of the day where all the action would be and miss the start, I have more than enough shots of everyone at signing on.

I made a nice leisurely journey to Gourette and the shuttle point for the press half way up the final climb, being a very small area at the top the press had to park just below gourette the ski resort and get a shuttle up. This provided a nice challenge in pack for the journey up, making sure I wasn’t going to get caught short, and as with my previous experience I took flash, long, short and wide lens not quite knowing what was up there.

The finish was not a good one for photography, the finish line was on a peak in the road and the press placed behind the line and the crest, shooting almost blind, into the sky and with the sun coming from in front casting some lovely shadows over people crossing the line. With ... Read More »

By Chris Wallis on Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Well today was an eventful day on the tour at least, if not for me. A rest day for the riders should mean a rest day for everyone but sadly not to be so
After a nice late rise for the day with only a trip to the press centre at Pau ahead of me, to upload some photos and sort out a few bits, in the absence of a working Wifi connection at the hotel. The hour and half trip was fairly uneventful, until the euskatel team went by, sadly camera all packed away not expecting to see anything on the way.

All was quite but there was a lot of TV cameras set up, and it wasn't until Rasmussen arrived for a press conference that i realised what they were in aide of. He spent most of it defending himself from the french press about allegations of avoiding drugs tests.
just as we were leaving we saw David Millar arrive and said a very brief hello to him. This was the point we wished we had stayed by the time wwe got back to the hotel we saw the news to say that vin ... Read More »