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August 2009

2009-2010 Cyclo-cross World Cup season

Written by Posted in Cyclo-crossAugust 27, 2009No comments

In little more than a month, the 2009-2010 Cyclo-cross World Cup season would kick off. It will start in Italy and will go around Europe, with the Benelux in the focus: four out of the nine races will be held either in Belgium or the Netherlands. France will host two races, one in Nommay and  one in the renowned city of Roubaix. One race goes to the the Czech Republic, Plzen is to host the second round, something for the beer-lovers.

This year, the furthest cyclo-cross fanatics need to travel to is Northern-Spain, Igorre, namely, a little town near Bilbao.
The Worlds will be held in Tabor, Czech Republic, so Zdenek Stybar, this year’s silver medallist is given the chance to do something remarkable at home.
Yours truly will be there, at all races so expect great cyclo-cross racing.action in the coming months.
The calendar of 2009-2010 Cyclo-cross World Cup Season:
  • 04.10.2009 Treviso (ITA)
  • 18.10.2009
    Plzen (CZE)
  • 08.11.2009
    Nommay (FRA)
  • 28.11.2009
    Koksijde (BEL)
  • 06.12.2009
    Igorre (ESP)
  • 20.12.2009
    Kalmthout (BEL)
  • 26.12.2009
    Heusden-Zolder (BEL)
  • 17.01.2010
    Roubaix (FRA)
  • 24.01.2010
    Hoogerheide (NED)

London Critical Mass, July issue

Written by Posted in urbanAugust 16, 2009No comments

It took me some time to process these images, but finally, they are here.

As usual, the ride started from Waterloo Bridge. My office is situated near Wandsworth town so I approched it from the direction of Vauxhall. Not long after passing by Vauxhall, someone patted me on the back. Since I was wearing a Critical Mass t-shirt, he reckoned (rightly) that I was heading towards the starting point and asked me if he could tag along. I happily led him there as he turned out to be a really nice guy. His name was Sam and he worked as a paramedic. We exchanged some stories, he told me about one call that had happened a couple days before. A cyclist was knocked over by a LGV and even though his helmet was smashed into smaller pieces, it definitely saved his life.

As usual, the ride started around 7pm and we immediately caused a massive congestion around the IMAX theatre.

Superman was here, but this time he chose to use his humble and mind-mannered alter-ego.

A Googler, without street view cameras attached to his bike.

As usual, there were some angry motorists, who couldn’t cope with the thought that they might be stranded for a short amount of time.

Sam and his friends.

This guy’s bike sported a couple christmas tree lights, it was quite impressive.

European Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships – Day 2

Written by Posted in urbanAugust 2, 2009No comments

Today, I could only pay a short visit to the tournament, but here are few pictures from a couple games.












European Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships – Day 1

Written by Posted in urbanAugust 2, 2009No comments

This week was probably the worst week of my life, at least photography equipment-wise. I brought a lot of business to Fixation. First, the shutter of my EOS 1D MkII is probably dead (it began when I took the World Naked Bike Ride pictures) so they need to replace it. My EX 580 flash stopped to work properly in manual mode (the level of the output remained the same, no matter what value I gave it) and a gust of wind smashed my EX 580II flash, so the impact damage has to be repaired. Fortunately, my lens are working properly, however, this unusual streak of bad luck left me with only one body, my beloved EOS 5D and no flash, so there were limitations to what I could do today, on the first day of the European Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships.

I arrived around 3pm and you couldn’t miss the place on Union street: all the cheering and clapping made it easy to find the venue. The matches were already on, though it wasn’t really clear, who’s playing with whom, only the score was cleary displayed courtside.

Though it’s called European Championships, the majority of the teams were from the UK and Germany or at least that was my impression when I took a look at the scoreboard.

This German team from Munich just started their game.

There was about 200 people around the main court and they celebrated big shots and big crashes equally enthusiastically.

The players always fought hard for each and every ball, the pace of the game didn’t allow them any idleness.

The sky was overcast throughout the day, but it didn’t rain until 4pm-ish. It tried to make up all the lost time, hence in no time it was raining cats and dogs which sent the majority of the crowd under the tents of the exhibitors. It didn’t last long, fortunately, but the players kept it cool and didn’t stop the ongoing match.

Bike polo is probably one those few sports where men and women can play against each other, though I’m not sure if that’s a good idea. In this case, we saw a really enthusiastic and very nicely playing German team, that comprised of three girls. They seemed to play better than the guys but failed to score a single goal whilst the other side scored four. Still, big up for the ladies!


This was the first day, more to come tomorrow.

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