Tour de Georgia weblog

Flickr TdG '08 pool is up -- add your best

A Flickr user sent me an email about his new TdG'08 photo pool, intended for your best Tour de Georgia Flickr photos/videos/etc.

Join the group to add photos to the pool.

Stage 2 photo galleries

Jacques-Maynes earns a jersey
Originally uploaded by Frank Steele.

That's Ben Jacques-Maynes leading the field over the KoM line on Clocktower Hill for the first time. As a result, B J-M becomes the first rider to wear the King of the Mountains jersey this year.

I was amazed by how many photographers were set up right at the King of the Mountains sprint line atop Clocktower Hill. I got there a little after 4, and every 5 minutes, a motorcycle would thrum to the top, and invariably, it was a photo moto, and yet another photographer would climb off.

Hink in the house
Originally uploaded by Frank Steele.

Tyler Hamilton
Originally uploaded by Frank Steele.

Other Stage 2 galleries:

CyclingNews.com | Stage 2 photo gallery

VeloNews | Stage 2 photo gallery by Casey B. Gibson

And here's the tourtracker Flickr photostream that's being updated throughout the race.

Why wait for VeloNews: TdGblog picks VN contest winners

So, VeloNews has apparently forgotten about their Tour de Georgia photo contest -- it's been posted for 3 weeks with no winner, and the next weekly photo contest has started up (with some Tour de Georgia shots).

Therefore, I'm appointing myself the arbiter of good taste. Here are the best shots from the VeloNews 2006 Tour de Georgia photo contest.

The high point of the race was, of course, the battle on Brasstown, the Stage 5 Showdown, and lots of the submissions were of Landis and Danielson, locked together on the narrow road up Georgia's highest climb.

Best Landis vs. Danielson shot:

Dan Soceanu's GC Battle on BB 2006! Honorable mention to tomandfloyd, photographer unknown.

Shots I'd love to have about a 50-megapixel version of:

The gorgeous Ascending to the clouds at hogpen, by Zach Putnam, and Jason McCartney bridges on Fort Mtn, by Bob DeLong.

Best “Celebrity on celebrity” action:

Lance sighting on Stage 2, by (the?) Nelson Vails.

Best use of color:

Sprint to the finish Stage 2, by Mike Beavers.

Best shot of Iowa's greatest climber, TdG King of the Mountains Jason McCartney:

McCartney gets KOM on Hogpen Gap, by Dois (I'm thinking “Doris”) Melton.

Best “Shot I'd love to know the backstory for” goes to:

Phonak gives Discovery an earful (post-race Stage 1), by Michelle Carter.

They're in full Jets vs. Sharks mode, there, and I can't think of why -- neither squad factored in the Stage 1 sprint.

Best race face:

A tie between José Enrique's goofy face leading Landis in Floyd Landis and friends, by Mike Beavers, and Allen Johansen's TT grimace in Allan Johansen1, photographer unknown.

A study in contrast:

There were at least two shots submitted that appear to have been taken a small fraction of a second apart: Fred Rodriguez wins Stage 4, by Trish Albert, and Freddie take(s) the win, by Renee Spivy. I get the feeling that Renee's came out of a point-and-shoot, and if that's true, it's wonderful -- I like the axis of the press photographer at lower-left, Rodriguez just across the line, and Dave Towle calling the race at upper right, but there are some blown-out highlights. Trish, on the other hand, gives Rodriguez more weight, better filling the frame, but the shot's a little underexposed.

Comments welcome on your favorites, or your other favorites....

Update: Apparently, VeloNews did pick a TdG photo contest winner, back in May, but it must have scrolled off their site pretty quickly.

CyclingShots posts Eki photo, road art

Cycling Shots | Eki!

Eric over at CyclingShots has been periodically posting one of his TdG photos at a time.

Today's feature: Discovery Channel's robo-Russion, Viatcheslav Ekimov.

Check his, then mine:

Same (sour) expression in both -- maybe not as angry looking as one of the shots I got of him on Stage 5. I should crop mine at the top, but that's as it came out of the camera.

As for Eki's infamous mullet, I believe I can add to the conversation:

Also, he likes bears.

VeloNews posts TdG gallery, winners announced next week

VeloNews Photo Contest | Tour de Georgia 2006

VeloNews has posted the submissions from their first Tour de Georgia photo contest. They'll be announcing the winners next week.

There are 10 pages full of images; I'll be posting a list of my 5-10 favorites before the winners are announced.

Big Stage 3 photo gallery posted

I've got about 80 pictures from yesterday's time trial up.

Please comment (at Flickr or here) if I've misidentified anyone; I had start order and rosters, and in a few cases, more than one rider from a given team came through close together and could have reversed their start order.

My favorite pictures (click through for other sizes):

The big boys:

Caption of the day

VeloNews.com | Tour de Georgia, Stage 2: A Casey Gibson gallery

Peloton crossing tracks
Casey B. Gibson/VeloNews

VeloNews captioned this picture: “Attention, France: In Georgia, they stop the train so a bike race can pass.”

Heh heh.

How I spent my Wednesday

Popovych works the crowd
Frank Steele/tdgblog.com

Flickr.com | Tour de Georgia 2006 Stage 2

My father and I spent the day chasing the racing, and caught up with the peloton 3 (almost 4) times. We missed the race finish, but caught Popovych at the bottom of the Rome finishing straight, and made our way up to the finish line to see the race interviews and presentations.

Alejandro Acton deservedly took the “most aggressive rider” jersey, and came right by us, when I got this shot. Look how totally wiped he was after that breakaway; he put everything into his nearly 100-mile escape effort.

I got three portraits I was especially happy with: Ekimov with “certified badass” shades, Landis goofing with the crowd, and Juan José Haedo at the post-race ceremonies.

Armstrong and Bruyneel, July 1996

Bruyneel tails Armstrong, July 1996; photo by Christy Steele

I'm scanning in a bunch of photos from the 1996 Olympic road race, with an eye toward posting them on Monday for the rest day.

I couldn't resist posting this one tonight, even though it got pretty blurry when I blew it up to a useful size.

In front, Lance Armstrong, 2.5 months from learning he has testicular cancer, is trying to break free of the first pro peloton in the Olympics, but his every move was covered. Here, the man shadowing Armstrong is Belgium's Johan Bruyneel, who would help convince Armstrong he could win the Tour de France, and serve as directeur sportif for all six Tour wins so far.

Update: I've swapped out the first picture for a better shot my wife took.

Also:

1996 Olympic time trial gallery

2005 Tour de Georgia time trial gallery

Other Stage 5 blog reports

Judging by the picture HE took, Josh Hallett was about 200 meters down the road from me (although I think I would remember if I had seen the guy in the background without a shirt -- brrrrrr!). There are more shots at Josh's photostream on Flickr.

Velogal was there, and got some pictures.

Dave Aiello was at the top, and got a great picture of Tom Danielson, Lance Armstrong, and Stage 5 most aggressive rider Christian Vande Velde at the post-race press conference (at right). He's got a running photo gallery covering the whole Tour, which you can also hit by clicking through the pic.

Michael at CoolBicycling.com also has a full Stage 5 report with lots of photos.

Not technically a blog, but the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has a good photo gallery for the stage, including this cool fisheye shot of Danielson and the crowd near the summit, and they sell reprints of anything on the site.

And here's my Stage 5 photoset ot Flickr.

Also:

cyclingnews.com | Tour de Georgia Stage 5 photo gallery