The Adventures of Jono

Oregon

I'm just back from Bend, OR and the Cascade Classic. I've got a bunch of photo editing to do and some sleep to catch up on so I will do a post about the trip later in the week. Just so you have the inside scoop though, one of my shots of Levi Leipheimer will be on the next cover of ROAD magazine. Can't wait to see it.....

Looking beyond the race

As some of you may have realized from my photos I like to bring in elements from outside of the race. The race action itself is important that's for sure but give me an old barn, some horses or pretty much anything  interesting and I'll try to get it into a shot. Sometimes, however, I see things that I just have to shoot but I can't work them into an image of the race no matter how hard I try. This happened to me June 5th in Reading, PA.

It was during the womens race. After the women took off on the small crit course I walked around to get a couple shots I had gotten last year. As I walked over past the first turn I noticed this guy with a camera and big lens but he was looking up in the air instead of at the race. I crossed over the road to see what was happening and when I asked him what he was looking at he pointed up. High above the race on a tall building across the street I could see a bird on a ledge with wings spread wide. The wind was catching it and it would go a little off balance, pull its wings in to recover then stretch them out again. At first I wasn't sure exactly what I was looking at but then the guy explained that it was a baby Peregrine Falcon and it was about ready to take its first flight. The guy was frantic because, he explained, if the flight doesn't go well the bird could just plummet to its death on the sidewalk or perhaps right into the race.

The womens field came by again and Ina Teutenburg had attacked. It's always great to see Ina back in the states racing. She's the scrappiest rider out there and doesn't mind making herself suffer to ride everyone else into the ground.  She  kind of reminds me of the  Peregrine Falcon. Once an endangered species they have fought back from near extinction, to survive the falcons prey on other birds. They are very fast and can fly up to 70 mph while going after supper and can dive at up to 200 mph to attack prey. That's one scrappy little bird if I've ever seen one. Today Ina was the falcon and everyone else was prey.

With the baby bird still lingering precariously close to the edge the mum swooped in from out of nowhere.  Wings were flapping, feathers were ruffling and the falcons screeches pierced the air. My hands grew sweaty on my camera as I watched the seemingly impending tragedy. Finally, after much protest, the little one brought its wings back in by its sides and seemed to settle down. The mum landed on a nearby ledge and then dropped down to another one closer by. She must have known the dangers and maybe knew that the young one wasn't ready yet. 

Up above I heard a familiar noise. I hear it on the weekends a lot back home but I was surprised to hear it here. Sure enough, moments later I saw the mirrored alloy hull of a B-17 bomber passing over. What was with all the distractions today?  Is their a race going on or what? A couple riders tried to attack Ina but to no avail. She calculated every move and spent her energy cautiously. With all of the action at the front the field blew apart with women scattered all over the course. Just like the mother falcon above, team directors were screeching orders into race radios with either  encouragement to those off the back or orders to move up to those who could still hang on. No matter, they were all prey.

One more time the mother falcon swooped and this time came down on the same ledge as the young ling. Just when she did that I noticed another fuzzy head pop out and then another. The mum had 3 young ones up there to look after. But with the mum on the ledge now the first one, with wings by its sides, backed in closer to the wall of the building and away from the chaos below. She had done it, she'd calmed everyone down and kept the family together for another day. Thoughts of me having to run across the street with  cameras flopping everywhere, shoot the riders as they lean through the first turn and then swoop in to catch the falling bird just before it crashes to its death began to subside. Time to breath.

Back in the race it was one lap to go. In the distance you could barely see the riders as they came through the last turn. Ina swooped across the road and into the lead with a couple hundred meters to go and never looked back. Somehow I got focused back on the action and got the finish shot. What a day......I need a beer.

If you can't take the heat......

  Philly was hot! It was Africa hot. The big discussion the day before was the heat and we all got up the next morning thinking about the heat. When we rode the course the day before the heat was debilitating and I couldn't imagine many would go the distance. We took bets on how many guys would finish and I lost, I guessed 48.

Manyunk and the wall were packed. I think I saw more people on the descent off the wall than ever before. This year they had barriers lining a lot of it and it was probably a good idea. In years past I've seen people get pretty far out into the road when we were going by at 50+ mph. A lot of people will hang their hands out wanting a slap as you go by. Last year I made the mistake of responding to one guy and as we went by we slapped hands so hard.....geeez that stung. He was most likely too drunk to know how much it hurt. Lesson learned for me and I'll never do that again.

What gets me through the days are cookies. Man I love cookies, especially chocolate chip. But it was a sad day to be a chocolate chip and I was getting more on my hands then in my mouth. Never the less I persevered under such dreadful conditions and ended up having a pretty decent day. My old buddy Brendan came out to drive me around on his moto. He's been driving me there for the last 5 years or so and we've worked together since 2001 on other things so it's getting to be a sort of tradition. Usually he drives me all week but he had bike troubles. The throttle cable was stuck and when he went to fix that a fitting on the gas line broke. I told him that we didn't need to fix that throttle cable anyway because we only need it in one position, wide open! Using his better judgment and not listening to me he got another bike to use.

Speaking of lessons learned......we had an incident with a photographer during the week. I won't mention names because I don't want to go there but he should have known better, especially being as good as he thinks he is. We were in Allentown and part way through the race this guy decides it would be a good idea to kneel down in the middle of the road just after a fast right hand turn off of a decent. And then he had his moto driver waving traffic around him so that no one ran him over. Of all the stupid things I have seen people do at races that has got to be the worst. Not only do you put yourself in danger but you endanger everyone else around you. I have always lived by the code that the riders come first. I may do some nutty things to get a shot like hang out of a tree, climb on to a train car, balance on a skinny rail on the side of a bridge or who knows what else I have blocked out of memory for therapeutic reasons but I would never endanger the safety or lives of others. I'm still amazed at the lack of common sense shown in that situation. What was it Forest Gump said, "stupid is as stupid does."

So, back to Philly.......Manayunk was packed. Every time up the wall the fans had multiplied. And every time up it got hotter and hotter. At one point I tried to sit in the road to wait for the riders but I couldn't do it because the pavement was too hot for my delicate posterior. Even standing out there the bottom of my shoes were hot. On one of the last laps we went through an area where they had put some tar down to seal the cracks and when the bike rolled across the tar the motorcycle slid sideways a couple of inches. We kept it up no problem and a mental note was made, the road is melting. I've seen it so bad in France that the riders tires sink right into the asphalt. That's what happened to Biloki when he crashed and Lance cyclorossed it around him. (As a side note they had just passed me and the crash happened right around the corner. We couldn't see much but knew it was something bad when we drove by.) But for the most part we have a better mixture of asphalt in the US so we don't see it much. 

By the end of the day we logged one of the longest days ever for that race. It ended up being about 6'15". The heat kept the speeds down mostly until the last couple laps. I was surprised that a break didn't get up the road but the field sprints are fun to see on that course too. It's such a buildup to see them go down past the big screen and into the circle, fighting for position the whole way. They come out of the circle and I watch them through my big lens to try and see what is happening. The mass of color starts to take shape as they get closer and closer and a cloud of dust rises behind them. Riders are spread across the road going elbow to elbow at 40+ mph. As they get bigger and bigger in the lens I decide who is in front and focus on him. Closer, closer and then bdddtttttttt the shutter fires like a machine gun going off at 10 frames per second as they cross the line. Just like that the day is over.

Gripping I tell you, gripping!

Reading

Today I shot the 3rd race in the Commerce Bank Triple Crown week in Reading, PA. Reading is really challenging to shoot because it is boooring. It's lacking scenics and the downtown is slowly being revitalized but it's got a long way to go. What I do like though is the challenge. Anyone can go to a beautiful place and get nice shots but put someone in a visually boring place and see what they get. Ragged roads, abandoned warehouses, old bars and row houses were the setting for today. What to do, what to do?

Finally the racing got started and I took off on the moto to get some nice safe shots that I had gotten before. After getting the easy ones I remembered a place I had seen one year earlier. Tim scooted us around on his Beemer with ease, we had just worked together in Allentown and it was great to work together again. (Thanks to Paul McKelvey for the photo) We headed back out of downtown and up to the historic area. Their are some really nice old houses up there. As we cruised along I saw the place from last year so we pulled over to check it out. Come to find out it was actually a cemetery. Across from the cemetery was a beautiful old mansion that is now a B&B. Well I couldn't pass either of these up so I got off the moto and had a look around. The light was awkward. The angles weren't working. With nothing looking good I walked through the big iron gates of the cemetery just to see inside. I walked through, had a quick look and turned to go back out when I saw it. The archway that I had just walked through was beautiful. Above it the ceiling arched up like the inside of an old cathedral and the gates were opened in with the light hi-lighting them against the dark stone columns. That was it, time to make it work.

I took a couple test shots and got the camera set up. The idea was to show off the beautiful architecture of the gates and the house but not so much the race. As the race got close some old guy rode his bike down the side of the road and stopped right in the middle of the driveway leading to the gates.....happens every time. I can't tell you how many shots I have had set up only to have someone decide at the last second that they need to cross the road and stand in front of me. Or a moto, will cross in front just as the riders are going by. It never fails. Fortunately this time the fan was pretty nice and moved quietly when I asked him to. Tim, my moto driver, then stayed out front to keep it from happening again and let me know when the riders were coming. With everything in place and the gate on lock down we sat and waited. Finally the lead cars came. The motos came and then the riders. All I had to do was click away. Click I did and I'm pretty happy with what I got. To me it looks more like somewhere in Europe then Reading, PA. Not too bad considering it took me a year to get the shot.

Still here

It's been a busy couple of weeks so no posts but I'm still here. This week I'm Philadelphia for the Triple Crown aka "Philly week". Mark Z and I started things in DC at the CSC Invitational on Sunday. I posted probably the most photos I ever have from one day of racing that you can check out here Usually we head up to Philly right after the race but this year we had an extra day in between races so we decided to stay in DC and see some sites. Our first stop was the Spy Museum which was pretty cool. They had all kinds of gadgets and stories from the beginning of spy history. If you get the chance definitely check it out. 

After that we headed over to see the Korean War, Vietnam and WWII memorials. It was humbling to walk through and think about what it all meant. I thought about my grandfather while I walked around the WWII memorial.

I thought about his brothers who made it back and the one who didn't. Last summer I learned that his brother was an Army Ranger and was in one of the gliders that went behind enemy lines on D day. My grandfather never talked about it because it bothered him too much but his sister told me the story not long before she past away last summer . Somewhere their are still boxes of letters sent back from Europe and even souvenirs that the brothers sent home as they swept across Europe on their various duties. Even though it always bothered my grandfather I was proud of what he did. Probably should have told him.

The Vietnam Memorial was eerie to me, the names make it different. When you look down the wall and see all those names etched into the stone it seems more real. Flowers are laid at the base of the wall and wreaths or little American flags that flutter in the breeze. In some places kids had made cards that were still left from memorial day. Families were there and looking for names of friends or relatives. It was mostly quiet. For a moment I wished that I had a name of my own to find but it didn't take long to remember what those names really stood for.

Once we finished there we walked over to the Lincoln Memorial. We read Lincoln's inaugural speech and maneuvered around the other tourists to try to get some photos of Lincoln. It's pretty fun being a tourist but credentials would have been nice, maybe a photo bib like we get at the races. I guess that would take the fun out of being a tourist though. 

Now we are up in Philly and I've got some time off in between races so I'll get caught up here. Maybe I'll even come up with some good material from race day.

Oh happy dogs

I'm home again and the dogs are happy. Nothin better than getting home to a happy dog. Roxy could hardly contain herself as I walked in and she bounced around the room, onto me and over and under oh-so-patient Kona. Me being away is new to Roxy since we've only had her since September. Actually we got her and a week later I left for the Tour of Missouri. (The photo of her was actually a yawn so if you see her don't be nervous.) But over the winter I was mostly home so now she is really getting broken in to not having everyone home all the time. Kona on the other hand is well used to it and just goes about her business whether I'm here or not. Her big thing is swimming so as long as her donut shaped tennis ball material thingy gets thrown into the pool she's a happy camper. She's the swimmingest pit bull I've ever seen and the season is about to peak. Everyone always asks how I can stand the Arizona summers but I love them. It's perfect, I get to play and so do the dogs.

We've got lots going on here with work and house projects. The big news is the progress on the new house. This week we had the inspection done on the plumbing and we'll be doing some in-floor electrical work in the next couple days, a little excavating and then the floor gets poured. Right now we're thinking that framing will start within the next 2 weeks. For those of you who haven't been keeping up on this or haven't heard about it yet I'll give you the quick run down. 2 years ago Paula and I bought a piece of land out in Gold Field Ranch which is on the north-east side of Phoenix. It's a rural area but still close to everything by Phoenix standards. Since then we worked with architect Tom Hahn to come up with a design for us that incorporates the environment and our lifestyle. After hours upon hours of back and forth and pouring over plans we settled on a final one. He calls it "fractured". The idea is based on the thought of taking a hike or a ride on a scenic trail and stopping along the way. You know how your going along and then you come to a scenic overlook so you stop for the view. Then you go some more and come across a waterfall and you stop to see it and so on and so on. This is the idea of walking through the house and taking in the scene along the way. You walk in the front and the entry is made to make you stop and look around. As you turn the living room opens up and the views go straight out the back towards the mountains. This carries through to each part of the house just as if you were out on a hike and taking it all in. The best way to describe the inside will be industrial modern. Were using as much recycled and "green" material as we can realistically afford. It had started out as a "green" home but I think at this point it just has some green elements. We were all starry eyed at the idea of building green but when it came down to it it was just too darn expensive to do it completely that way. But we'll do our part with the things we can and it will be pretty darn cool. It's been a culmination of years of dabbling in the real estate markets, slaving over a hot oven, burning the candle at both ends and walking uphill in the snow both ways to school to make it happen and now that things are actually underway its overwhelming and exciting. A lot of work but exciting non the less. I'll keep you updated on the progress.

In the meantime I've been updating my galleries with Tour de Georgia photos. I've gotten 150 or so online now and I heard today that ROAD Magazine has chosen the Tour de GA issue cover.....but I'm not telling you which photo it is. You'll have to wait and see. :)
Here is a shot of our crew minus me. This was on top of Brasstown Bald, stage 6, after everyone had cleared out. We spent our time in the press room up there and finished up just in time for the sunset. After this we hurried down and drove over to Athens to see the finish of the Athens Twilight Crit. I had to finish doing captions and send from the car so that I could get out and see the last 20 laps. Kirsten was all kinds of giddy because her boyfriend Davide Fratini, or is it fiance' now hmmm, was racing. Of course I couldn't stand it so I had to go back to the car and get my camera out to get some shots. It's a good thing I did because I think I was the only one that got a decent finish shot, or at least from what I saw. Shooting those races at night is tough stuff and always a bit of a gamble and I've certainly missed my share. Mostly though I figured if I just shot and got it over with it would justify us hurrying off to get some food. It was a long day considering we had just finished the hardest stage of the TDG, worked on photos until 10 pm and still hadn't eaten anything. My days at the races mostly revolve around rationing food so the time lines are critical. That night my time lines looked like a back alley in Baghdad after the Marines just chased Al-Qaeda through it. Oh wait, Al-Qaeda isn't in Baghdad anymore....well maybe they are. No, no they shouldn't be. Well whatever, I didn't get to eat until somewhere around 11:30 and that's what is important. In the end though it was a good time and I was glad we went. It made for a nice break from the hectic schedule of being at a Tour.

Another day.....

another airport. It's that time of the year! Yesterday I finished shooting the last day of the Tour de Georgia and this morning I am off to Virginia. I'll be spending a few days back in my home town of Va. Beach before heading up to Arlington for the US Air Force Cycling Classic. I'm looking forward to catching up with some old friends and doing a little riding during the week.

While I'm there I'll do some updates here and pull out a few photos from the week. I finished up the week pretty well and everything went smoothly. Not everyone had such good luck and we did have a couple moto crashes. The worst was with Don McQueen and John Pierce. At the beginning of stage 5 we had a neutral roll out and just after the start a couple pedestrians walked out in front of them. Don had just looked down at his map when the fans stepped out and BAM they all went down. John Pierce slid across the pavement and got rid of the skin on his right elbow. Don got a little minor road rash and broke a rib. One of the fans broke a leg in two places while the other was taken away in a neck brace. As far as I know everyone was released from the hospital that evening.

Things happen in a split second during the race. Motos can go down, riders go down and cars get smashed up. Also on stage 5 the Healthnet team car ran into the back of the BMC car. Everyone spends a good part of the day inches away from each other in the caravan and bumps are pretty common. I think being in the heart of Nascar country was sinking into the directors heads a bit too. After the hit the BMC car's bumper was dragging so they ripped it off and threw it in the woods, no pit to pull into out there. Healthnet got pushed off the road after the airbag popped and it stalled. Shake and bake baby, shake and bake!

Well those were a couple of the highlights from the week. Boarding announcements are ringing in my ears so it's time to pack up. I'll post some photos as soon as I get in and settled. Now boarding rows.......

It's on!

Today was stage 2 of the Tour de Georgia. Yesterday we began stage 1 out on Tybee Island which was a pretty cool start. Everyone seemed pretty laid back and relaxed after spending a couple days out there relaxing by the beach. For us it's pretty much business as usual. We've got the regular Cyclingnews crew here of myself, Mark Zalewski and Kirsten Robbins. Mark does the live coverage and race reports each day while Kirsten works on news items and quotes from the day. We've all been working together for the last 3 years and Mark and I for about 5 now so we've got a pretty good system of things. Every day we pack up at the hotel and get to the start of the race so that we can each head off to our respective jobs. I'm on the back of a moto each day shooting so I gather gear and head over to it. Mark is always in a media car so he makes his way there after talking to some riders and getting a scoop for the day. Kirsten gets quotes from the riders as to how they are feeling, how the day was yesterday or about whatever else is going on. The quotes she gets at the start end up going into the live coverage later in the day. And thus our day begins. At the end of the race Mark talks to some riders or maybe team managers or whoever he needs to to get info about the day. Kirsten gets quotes from the winner and then heads to the press conference to get some more time with the big guns from the day. After I have shot the finish I get a couple shots of the winner and then head over to the podium to get those shots. When the podium is wrapped up I'm off to the press room to start my editing and sending out photos. We all finally meet up there and get caught up on stories from the day and then it's nose to the grind stone to try and get our work done before they close the press room. Sometimes we don't quite get done in time so we'll head off to find a good coffee shop to work in.

Stage 1 was pretty short so the day went fast. It always takes a day or two to get into the rhythm of things and Monday was no different. This week I am on the moto with my friend Chris Monroe. Chris and I have worked together off and on since his first time as a "photo moto" at the first Tour de Georgia 6 years ago. He's great to work with and we get on really well with each other. We had a bit of a rough day on stage 1 though. The sprinters seemed eager to keep things together so that they would have their chance at the end of the day so that kept the group bunched up a lot. And with the roads being narrow that didn't make it very easy for us to make our passes. Not long after the start Chris and I were on a pretty wide section of road but riders were spread from shoulder to shoulder when we needed to get by. Things get tight like that sometimes and sometimes tighter than others. But Chris kept us right on the edge of the road for as long as he could and finally we got to a section where there was a big paved median which seemed like a good place for us to get by. He laid on the throttle a little bit to get us past a few guys before the median ended. The bad part was that we had traffic poles in the median; they were those thick round kind that are fixed to the ground and if you hit them with a car they would bend over. I can now tell you however, that they do not bend quite so much when they are hit by a motorcycle or a camera. The first one seemed to glide off of us without any prejudice but the second one hit with a loud thud. At the time I was shooting over my right shoulder so I didn't see it coming but I felt my camera swing back after I heard the hit. I really didn't think much of it until I looked down at my camera and the lens hood from my 70-200 was missing. The guys in the front of the bunch never yelled or anything so I am thinking it just shattered and landed on the other side of the road instead of heading towards the riders, thank goodness! Chris had done a great job of keeping us out of trouble with the riders but my camera bore the brunt of it. I'd rather it be that way instead of being "that guy" and taking out a rider. I shot the rest of the day without much trouble until I got to the finish. The boys were coming in fast....really fast. I got myself set up for the finish shot but when I looked through my camera it seemed fuzzy. When I flipped the camera down and looked at the front of the lens I saw that the UV filter was shattered, that traffic pole had taken it out. So I quickly unscrewed it and flipped the camera back up to catch Ivan Dominguez take the win. Never a dull moment.

Well .........maybe a couple dull moments. Stage 2 today was a slightly less than spectacular stage to say the least. Georgia has some beautiful countryside don't get me wrong. I really like shooting this race but sometimes, as with any stage race, you just have to get from point A to point B and today was pretty much one of those days. you know were board out there when the photographers start taking photos of each other. Casey Gibson and I had the amazing timing today to take photos of each other at exactly the same time so that we could see each others flashes go off. It's the little things.........

That's all for today. It's gotten late and we've got another big stage tomorrow.

Sweet Tea!

Oh yea, bring on the sweet tea! I'm in the airport in Atlanta on my way to Savannah for the start of the Tour de Georgia. What's the best thing about the Tour de Georgia? Sweet tea. With all of the traveling throughout the year the TDG is always one of the highlights because of the southern hospitality. And of course no trip to the south is complete without overdosing on sweet tea.......

They are announcing boarding for my plane so I'll have to expand on the pleasures of sweet tea later. Tomorrow I'll have photos from the pre-race press conference so stay tuned to Cyclingnews for those. Monday it all begins and it looks to be an exciting week. Rock Racing has been let in to the race so we'll see what kind of craziness they bring. Thursday we'll have the first ever team time trial for the race which is gonna be a blast to shoot. I've not shot a team time trial since probably the 2005 Tour de France so I'm pretty excited.

Plane is boarding so I'm off. I'll check back in once I get settled into the race.

Place your bets!

Now here is something were not used to seeing at the US races.....roadside betting. This photo was sent over from Belgium by my old pal John Pierce. Those people know their bike racing! It's similar to people who follow football or basketball here in the US and know players from there college days through the pro ranks. In Europe fans will start to follow riders as juniors even and then espoirs and on. The odds-on favorite was definitely Boonen but it looks like Hincapie wasn't getting too bad of odds compared to a lot of the others.

It's old news now but at the end of the day Tom Boonen (photo by Luc Claessen) ripped the legs off the rest of the bunch for the win. If you haven't read the whole report you can read it here on Cyclingnews. My buddy James Haung was there this year and he's loaded up some cool bits in the tech section too. It was pretty interesting to read about what guys were doing differently to bikes just for that day and also what guys didn't change anything.

Speaking of tech! I've got 2 new bikes in the stable for testing. James Haung and I are doing a really cool test with the LOOK 595's. The 595's come in 'Origin' models and 'Ultra' with the Ultra being the stiffer of the two. James and I each have 2 bikes built identically and our job is to try and see if we can tell which one is the Origin and which is the Ultra. The Ultra uses 15% more carbon fiber to increase the stiffness for bigger guys like myself or even smaller sprinters who want that little bit extra. These bikes are sweet! Each one is built with SRAM Red components, Ritchey carbon bar and stems and Mavic Rsys wheels. Were going to spend a couple months on these and then we'll have a full report on our findings so stay tuned.

One more thing. I read a great quote the other day that I wanted to pass along. I'm not sure who said it but it read like this...."I hope I am the person my dog thinks I am."

Think about that one and have a good week.