I was going through some photos last night looking for something and ran across this photo I took at last years Tour of California on stage 3. Stage 3 is when we head into the finish in San Jose and is the day of the now infamous Sierra Rd. climb. Once you make the crest of Sierra Rd it is a long narrow, twisty and steep descent back down to the run in to San Jose. This is one of the days where you can really see who is a good descender and who isn't. And it's a day that makes me have the utmost respect for how well the pros can handle there bikes.
So this day I was on the moto with one of the best photo moto drivers, Walt Conte, and we had been having a great day of shooting. At the base of the climb I had timed it just right and gotten on the front of the break as it hit the bottom of the hill. If you don't time things right and your back shooting the field or chase groups and you roll up onto the back of the break on a climb like this the commissar often won't let you pass because its either too dangerous or the road is too narrow. But if you can get in front just at the base you can drop back to the front of the break and shoot until your memory card is smoking. Well, that is as long as the tv moto isn't in the way, or their aren't 5 other photo bikes stacked up rotating backwards to get shots, or the lead controller on the road says it OK, the front moto marshal says its OK and you aren't knocking fans off the road. The last item of concern is how close you are to the top of the climb. The problem here is that you have to leave plenty of room between you and the front of the riders so that they don't run into the back of you on the descent. Not that I have had this happen mind you. :) You get the idea though, things get hectic.
Finally we get in there, get the shots and we get out in plenty of time. As you come up over the top of Sierra Rd and see the other side you see how steep it really is. Not only is it steep but its narrow, the turns at the top are very tight and a lot of it has no shoulder with big drop offs. So we see the top. We pass the KOM sign. And as we begin to crest the top Walt nails it and we accelerate down the straight and through the first hairpin. I love it. When your in the zone like that and shooting and the adrenalin is pumping hard it all starts to come together. Thats when you better not choke and miss the shot.
As we descend Walt and I get in sync so that we flow smoothly through the turns withoutfighting each other or the bike. The bike we were on, I can't remember what it was now, had had the suspension adjusted to sit low by the rental shop. This was a bad idea for us since Walt at the time probably weighed about 230 and I was the same, not to mention all of my gear. With the turns being that tight and us leaning as much as we could the bottom of the bike was dragging hard in places. I could imagine us looking like a scene out of Mad Max; motorcycle dragging through the turns with sparks flying, this giant Aussie bloke (Walt) driving like a bat out of hell and me hanging off the back with all kinds of gear flopping everywhere. How can the American public not be entertained by bike racing, or at least the sideshow that goes along with it?
The road finally straightened a bit and the speedo rolled up past 70mph. We were in our groove now. A few more turns and the road would level off. I could feel Walt lay into the throttle a little more just to......well, go faster. All of the sudden I could see something up ahead in the road! A tree branch maybe, or a cardboard box, something that fell off a truck? It couldn't have been either because I could see movement. Then I realized what it was, 2 turkeys! What the?!! Walt backed off a tiny bit and laid on the horn. Just as we got close the 2 birds did their best flying imitation, gained maximum lift of a couple feet and in a flurry of feather and beaks made it to the side of the road. Disaster averted.