It was Earth day last week, so the April Critical Mass ride couldn`t have been better timed.
I had a meeting prior to the ride, so I left home in a rush and I didn`t have time to pick up a proper camera, thus the lousy pictures, taken with my Blackberry.

I arrived to the South bank of Waterloo Bridge at 6pm sharp and there were quite a few cyclists.

However, it took as almost another hour to get started. I don`t know, what was the reason for that, my only problem was that had I known earlier that it wouldn`t start at 6pm, I would have been able to bring a camera with me. The wait though gave us time to meet fellow cyclists in the crowd.

By 7pm, a couple hundred cyclists gathered, the ever-growing crowd was getting more and more cheerful. Finally, we left Southbank and headed for Waterloo Bridge to get to the other side of the Thames. Most of the motorists didn`t bother that we blocked the traffic, however there were some, who was really angry at us, making their commute 20 minutes longer.

Leaving Parliament street, we saw the Sri-Lankan protesters, protesting in front of the Parliament.

The square was already clogged due to very heavy traffic, so it was tricky even for us to get through.

We headed back towards Trafalgar Sq, but as we reached Theobald Rd, it turned out that the end of the ride would be at Elephant&Castle. Since I`m living near Angel, it didn`t make much sense to go all the way down there, so I said hello to my new friends and rode back home.
It was a really great ride however, count me in next month!

No, this isn`t about Jack Bauer, rather an idea I`ve been thinking about for a while. For the next 24 hours, I`ll go to the corner of Upper Street and Islington Green and take a picture from the very same point of view in every hour. Pictures will be uploaded in every hour, so check back regularly.

The weather was really ugly last week, so when Joolze dropped me an email whether I would be interested in covering the first round of the Midlands XC races, I said yes, but I was praying for decent weather.

The weather turned out to be great and so did the race. I took a train to Rugby and arrived there around 10am. Since the race course was quite close to the railway station, by 10.20, I was saying hi to James, the organizers or the race. He was really nice as he provided me with a map of the course, highlighting interesting points for me. I decided to wait for the first start and then head off to the course.

The first interesting point was amongst the woods. I set up the tripod
for the flash on the right side of the camera, it leveled with the head
of the riders. I wasn`t sure at the beginning which lens should I use,
but after a few frames it turned out that the 24-70 lens might not be
wide enough, so I attached the 17-40 and it got better indeed.
Canon EOS 5D | EF 17-40 f/4@20mm | f/5 | 1/250 | ISO 400

After taking a few pictures, I moved on, finding another spot, where the cyclists were to go around a big tree. The turn was a bit tricky, as the inside of it was quite muddy, so everybody chose the upper part of the curve. The flash went to the right side of the camera again, but this time it was just a fill light, the key light came from above.
Canon EOS 5D | EF 24-70 f/2.8L@70mm | f/3.5 | 1/250 | ISO 100

This part of the course didn`t offer much more, thus I headed towards the part, where there course went through a motocross track which seemed to be a good spot. On the way there I caught Rosara Joseph, the New Zealander, law student rider on a short ascent. It seemed a pretty good spot as the background should have offered riders going both up and down, but Rosara was so ahead of the pack, that nobody was in the background.
Canon EOS 1D Mk II | EF 70-200 f/2.8L@200mm | f/3.2 | 1/1250 | ISO 100

By the time I got to the motocross section, most of the riders had already finished, so I didn`t have much chance to shoot something decent there, so I headed back to the finish line to see what`s going on there. This veteran racer just finished his race, when his kids rushed to him and looked at him with endless admiration in their eyes.
Canon EOS 5D | EF 17-40 f/4@17mm | f/8 | 1/125 | ISO 100

There was a bit paue after the morning races, but before the little kids started to gather for their race, I spotted this beautiful Klein bike from the early nineties. It showed all the characteristics of those years: the crazy colors, the rigid fork, cantilever brakes, oversized head tube and first generation Grip Shift shifters.
The guy, who owned this bike, had a daughter, who was to participate in the under-10s race. She wasn`t overly excited about the race, however, she got really excited when I asked her to take her picture.
Canon EOS 5D | EF 17-40 f/4@17mm | f/8 | 1/200 | ISO 100

The under-10s race started a little bit after 1:30 and didn`t last long, but this didd`t mean that the young riders didn`t take it  seriously.
Canon EOS 1D Mk II | EF 70-200 f/2.8L@140mm | f/4 | 1/400 | ISO 100

The afternoon races started at 2:30. First the Elite Men rushed off, then the Expert Men and afterwards came the biggest crowd: the Sport Men. I waited for them right after the start, on the first ascent, right after the feeding zone.
Canon EOS 1D Mk II | EF 70-200 f/2.8L@200mm | f/2.8 | 1/1250 | ISO 100

After the start I headed back to the motocross section, hoping that I might be able to catch something that resembles to 4X. I put the flash a bit further up fill-in the face of the riders. These shots are never easy to catch, as they approach with relatively high speed and panning and framing the shot at the same time can be tricky. However, as the leader, Lee Williamson came, I managed to snap this shot, which was exactly what I wanted, so I was quite happy and soon went off to other parts of the course.
Canon EOS 5D | EF 24-70 f/2.8L@27mm | f/9 | 1/250 | ISO 100

I`ve found this spot as I was coming back from the motocross section. I lied down on the ground and apart from from some thorny things, I really liked this vantage point with the shallow depth-of-field and the the dandelions also in the frame.
Canon EOS 1D Mk II | EF 70-200 f/2.8L@170mm | f/4.5 | 1/1600 | ISO 100

I went back to the curvy part of the track in the woods, where I set up the flash a around 20-25 feet in front of me. It wasn`t intentional, but I soon realized, that this was a very good spot as I focused on a point where the riders had to make efforts to get over some roots and it made the pictures a bit more interesting as they were getting through this section.
Canon EOS 1D Mk II | EF 70-200 f/2.8L@145mm | f/2.8 | 1/250 | ISO 100

I didn`t manage to count the laps accurately but I knew that the race should be soon over. But before I headed back to the finish area, I found this little ditch, which promised a few interesting shots. I sat down in the mud (bringing waterproof trouses turned out to be a good idea afterall) and waited for them riders. I took a picture of Lee Williamson, who was still leading the race. I was lucky again, it was my first picture and it came out exactly the way I wanted. Sometimes it`s like that, sometimes I can`t quite reproduce the image I have in my mind, I guess you have to accept when pieces fall into their places – and do so when they just don`t.
Canon EOS 5D | EF 17-40 f/4L@17mm | f/4 | 1/160 | ISO 400

I went back to the finish area just in time to see him arrive. It was rather pity, that as the majority of racers had finished already, it was a bit deserted, having only Elite Men families around. There was a bit of hesitation before the medal presentations, but then they handed them out and we all called it a day.

It was really great day, the track was rather fast than challenging technically, but everybody seemed to enjoy the race and the brilliant weather. Good work James!

The very first book I`ve ever read was about Robin Hood and his adventures in the Sherwood Forest.Therefore I was quite excited to go the place where my childhood hero defeated the absurdly evil sheriff of Notthingham.

After picking up my friends early on Sunday, we headed towards Mansfield Park. The weather was brilliant and it remained like that all day long.

At 10am started the Elite Female race and they started their 5 laps on the course. It was very flat, without triple arrow descents, a fast and not too exciting lap indeed, the only exciting point was log across the route. Some riders jumped right through it, others chose to cross it slowly, therefore, luckyly enought, we saw only a handful crashes there.

I`ve read a couple days ago about the Ride II launch event at SFGFC and I decided to check it out. I indeed headed down to the Rugby Tavern today after work.
If you don`t know, what Ride is, you can read it here. It`s magazine from cyclists, to cyclists. Brilliant design and layout accompany the articles, written by the biggest names of cycling including Chris Hoy, Greg Minaar or John Tomac. 160 pages of pure cycling without any bias towards road or dirt biking, truly unique content presented in a brilliant way.

And it soon turned out to be an excellent idea as I`ve met great people, I`ve bought a copy of the aforementioned latest issue and also managed to see some fine rides.

Don`t hesitate to order a copy, as long as they have some, it`s only 9 pounds in the UK and 13 for the rest of the world, clearly a bargain.