Friday, July 06, 2012

Cycle racing

Waiting for the Amstel Gold [race].

I love bike racing. It's hard sport full of nere-do-wells and what have you as well as riders with egos as big as the Eiffel tower. And nice, clean riding riders with whom I worked in the past - some of whom are riding the Tour de France this year and others who are riding the Tour of Poland soon. It's all go eh?

Mr Windy has a fine cycling photo blog here that I have been watching and that inspired me to dig around and find some of my images. The famous Wiesmier neg filing scheme precludes me from showing TDF snaps - they are probably down the back of the settee - but I have two favourites for you delectation. Above a typical scene of Dutch enthusiasts awaiting the arrival of the Amstel race in lovely Valkenburg , which, that year was won by Frank Schleck - currently riding the TDF too. I love these kinds of cycling events snaps, reminds me of the excellent images in Rouleur magazine.

Mildenhall

And then to Mildenhall, home of the best grass track racing in the Uk currently. The racing is organised by Max Pendleton, father of current Olympic cycling sprint champion Victoria Pendleton - who used to ride this event a lot but seems to have other things to do these days! That's dear Eve racing too - in white. Grass track racing was not Eve's best discipline but she did love taking part and had such a lot of fun - as I did once!

Meanwhile, the village here is still shrouded in fog! But it is still warm.

For those who like such things; the top snap was taken with a Voigtlander Perkeo and the lower snap with some 35mm camera or other!

4 comments:

Martina said...

This is the first time I ever heard of grass track racing ... with racing bikes? Small tires? No MTB's ;-)?

I like that Eve is in focus and not the cyclist in front, makes the photo interesting.

Andrea Ingram said...

see here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgE5VcV7UCg

Martina said...

Thanks - this really looks like a lot of fun.
In the meanwhile: TA, no wonder I never heard of it:
"Track racing is also done on grass tracks marked out on flat sportsfields. Such events are particularly common during the summer in Scotland at Highland Games gatherings, but there are also regular summer events in England."

Martina said...

Hm, did my last comment get through or did the undecipherable captcha eat it?