Larry's Round Britain Blog
By British Cycling’s Larry Hickmott on the Tour of Britain |
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Stage 1: A day in the sun
Having done this race since it started (2004 I think!), there is an element of auto pilot to the coverage of the race. This morning, breakfast at the Premier Inn in central Hull was at 8am but thankfully the hotel served up the bacon and eggs earlier and the press bus driven by Steve Joughin of Provision clothing, former double pro champion, left on time to cross the Humber to get to Scunthorpe.
There was a hold up at the toll booths as the Cervelo team tried to pay for all there vehicles at once and it held up the queue for a good while. No bother though as we came out of the mist at the other side of the Humber with plenty of time and were at the start by 9am thanks to the trusty sat nav. Already there were hundreds of people in the car park seeking out riders and thousands more waiting for teams to sign on.
The crowd was one of, if not the biggest I have seen at a stage start and it was great to see a fantastic send off for the race on its way around Britain. I managed to catch up with lots of familiar faces and get a few interesting pictures like the one of Ben Swift and the family dogs as well as a word with Ian Wilkinson who was 9th on the stage in the big bunch kick. A long way from mountain biking getting involved in sprints like that. Well done Wilks!
Thanks to my experienced pilot Graham Harper, everything went well getting the pictures and we stuck to the tried and trusted strategy of only going for race action and staying in front unless the race broke up. It didn’t but after we had pictures of the two riders leading the race all day, we stayed around the front of the bunch and kept going back to relieve the boredom of cruising along and looking for different ways to photograph the same scene of a bunch in ‘piano’ mode.
The crowds in some of the towns were amazing and the police and NEG did a wonderful job of keeping us safe. With around 27 miles to go, we left the race because we knew it was going to be a pain to get to the finish line before the riders. We cruised along at 60 or so, having to keep to legal speed limits as we were out of the race bubble where the motorcyclists do travel a little quicker!
We made the finish okay but on arrival were sent the wrong way along the deviation, and then when we got to the finish area, there was no clear path to follow for the two photographers to get to the right side of the finish line. As ever, it’s eccentrically British in the Tour of Britain for us to have to do the deviation when at the road worlds and other UCI events, the motorcycle photographers cross the finish line and get off ready to shoot the sprint. So while I remained annoyed that I had had to brave normal traffic conditions and the danger that this brings with it, as well as having missed the junction being made between bunch and break, I at least got the finishing sprint so job done for part 1 of the day’s work.
After the finish, Steve took myself and Gerry McManus of CyclingNews.com on our first transfer of the race and along the way we stopped for a coffee fix at Costa and the first food of the day. We arrived at the hotel which at first seemed quite good until I discovered a wedding party in the same hotel and as I write this at 10.30pm, the noise of it can be heard still. Oh well!
At the hotel, and booking in, I started on part 2 of the day’s work going through the 1,000 or so photos taken as well as any pre-race and post race interviews. This was finished around 9.30pm so not a bad day’s work. Tomorrow, it’s off on stage 2, Darlington to Gateshead which is expected to be another sprinter's stage.
Last year, this was wet and a right pain to get to the finish from the deviation and I expect it will be the same this year even if it’s not raining. I have two choices – 1, leave the race very early, 40 miles to go, and hope I can get to the finish line from where I get dropped off or, hang on to the race until the last minute and miss the finish and hope I can scrounge the images off some one else. Decisions, decisions.
It could all be avoided if the Tour of Britain organisation would let us, the two motor photographers, to cross the line and get off well (five or ten minutes) before the race comes along. That would be the safe option (well, safer!) and the better one for the coverage of the race. But the day before when we (my pilot and I) asked for such permission, we got a firm no. This was (is) frustrating because the cost of a motorbike in the race is not cheap and we’re there to provide readers with a picture report of the race as I have in the stage report.
I had requested permission to cross the finish line instead of following the deviation as we’d been able to do this a few times last year and it worked so much better from a safety point of view. Unlike some photographers, I tend to stay in front of the race the whole time unless it breaks up simply because on narrow lanes with 100 plus riders, getting past them can be both dangerous and time consuming.
It is quite an experience to be shooting the race action from a motorbike which has been stripped of its panniers and top boxes so I have room to turn around 180 degrees while sitting forward on the bike.
There is no holding on to the bike as both hands are on the camera and while I watch the race and try and get pictures of it unfolding using my trusty D300 with grip with 80-200mm lens, my Welsh pilot, Graham Harper watches the road ahead as police motor bikes and NEG escort bikes whizz by at twice our speed.
Sitting in that race bubble is not easy to describe but it is an eye opener and not for the faint hearted. As well as the motorbikes travelling at speed coming past, you have others accelerating from a standstill where they have been holding traffic as we and the race approach quickly.
In all I understand there are something like 60 motorbikes on the race and when there is a bottle neck, then the heartbeats really do start to race as the race regulator, Jason Jenkins, does his best to get the roads flowing again. What generally happens is that a lead car will unwittingly slow and the race will catch up with it and the many motorbikes who are trying to get ahead of the race to control traffic will get held up because of narrow roads, street furniture and so on.
This happened once or twice today but because the bunch was not in a hurry, we got away with it! If we (my pilot and I) happen to get caught up in that as we move away from the front of the bunch to find a quiet spot up ahead, there are generally some mad moments as the race sorts itself out and we do our best to make sure the riders don’t catch us.
So my big victory of the day today besides getting the finishing sprint picture and the Latte at Costa!, was getting to the finish line in time to get that shot of the winner Chris Sutton crossing the line. Okay, it maybe tenuious but his father once worked in a bank in my home town in Australia and Gary is also a great bloke too so while it would have been great to see Swifty win it or Fonzy behind him, it was good to see Chris win the stage.
Now I can look ahead to the rest of the stages and with the sprints expected to be the most exciting yet, the pressure is on more than ever unless I can do a deal for the finish pictures!
Watch this space!
