The first race of the year was the ‘cross World Cup in Roubaix. While there was a torrential rain on the day before, we were lucky enough to have wonderful sunshine on the race day. Niels Albert had a particularly bad day and the strongest man of the day, Zdenek Stybar won his third race of the season and took the overall leader’s jersey.

This is one the favourite photos from last year – it shows the sheer concentration you can see the on the riders face just minutes before the race, how they shut everything and everybody out and concentrate at the job at hand.

Hoogerheide was special for many reasons. Finally, I’d managed to use both flashes the way I’d wanted to use them. I met fellow photographer, Kristof Ramon face to face for the very first time. It was the last race before my book was published, so I had to be superfast to process the photos after the race and have them sent to the designer and the rest of the production team.

The Worlds are always a very special event and the ‘cross Worlds wasn’t any different. After tweaking the 2008 World Cup course somewhat, they had put together a challenging course and the massive snowfall made matters worse. This was the iciest descent on the course and you could be sure to catch some action (read: crashes) there, though on this frame Tom Meeusen’s superb bike handling skills saved him from touching the ground.

After a dozen international races, the British ‘cross Nationals were my first domestic cyclo-cross race and it was a great day, it was a shame that Gabby Day punctured right at the start and thus couldn’t really contest Helen Wyman for the title.

After a three month hiatus, the MTB World Cup season started and on home soil. The drive from London was long but the organizers had put together an amazing course. It was a shame that after the race it took them two hours to clear the parking lots, making leaving the place a nightmare.

Sometimes you just get lucky and you are in the right place, in the right time.

The first couple of races were too easy, in terms of the weather, so the heavy raining caught me unprepared in Maribor. While it’s one my favourite courses with the chairlift that takes you to half way through the course, on the first day I got absolutely drenched in an hour in 10 degrees. I really hated this whole thing back then, as I was sitting in the mud, but it was nothing but my own unpreparedness, that had wreaked havoc.

When I recce a course, I always try to see the final image – whether the actual photo turns out like that or not is a different question. Sometimes it’s better, sometimes it’s worse than I imagined. This was one of those pictures where the photo exceeded my expectations, this is one of my favourites from 2010.

If I wanted to catch the cork and frame it like this, I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to do that. Sometimes you just get lucky.

Sarsha Huntington’s horrid crash was painful, even to watch. Luckily, she emerged mostly unscathed, she had had only minor injuries.

I’d been to Fort William before, but that was during early autumn and I wasn’t prepared for the swarms of midges. They were around constantly, almost irregardless of the time of the day or the altitude. It was an epic fight with gazillions of tiny monsters. And mostly humans lost.

Sometimes you’ve got a shot in your mind and you are willing to do anything to get the shot. I was standing ankle-deep in a small pond for roughly 30 minutes to finally get the shot I wanted. It wasn’t as good as I had thought, but I still included it so the effort wasn’t entirely wasted.

This photo was taken during the final runs. I wanted to stay close to the finish and I had had limited options if I wanted even a half-decent photo. I was sharing this spot with two fellow photogs and I just couldn’t find my rythm, I couldn’t find the right spot, the right lighting setup. But then I managed to catch the right moment when the World Cup overall leader, Greg Minnaar hit our spot.

Brian Lopes is one truly brilliant rider. While he generally excels in gravity disciplines, he doesn’t mind every now and again taking short trips to other areas, like XC crit. After competing in the dual slalom race at the Bikeradar Live festival on Saturday, he had had enough energy on Sunday to enter the Dirt Crit race with the very same bike he tackled the dual slalom course and he was a serious contender right until the end. Certainly, he’s one of the biggest personalities of the sport.

Myles Rockwell – is it just me who remembers the golden Moto forks from 1995?

Greg Herbold, I think, enough is said.

In the back row, Leigh Donovan and Kathy Sessler were drinking champagne and having a lot of fun.

Ok, I know this is pathetic, but this has been a dream for me for a very long time. He was on the cover of the very first mountain biking magazine I have ever bought and I have been admiring him ever since. He is 55 years old but he’s still lean and mean. It was a great to meet him finally, let alone seeing him racing with these guys.

Hubert Pallhuber

Kathy Sessler’s superchic, though probably not SPD compatible shoes.

Filip Meirhaeghe had been quite disappointed that he hadn’t been invited to the race, so when the news arrived this morning that the organizers would like him to join the race too, he was very happy about it.

Heroes of these days celebrate the heroes of past days.

The renowned mechanic, Monkey.

There were quite a few Canadian mountain biking stars as well.

Pre-race preaparations. The first two laps were just for display, proper racing was to start afterwards, lapped riders has to leave the race, the rider in the lead after 20 minutes wins the race.

An unusual peloton.

One of my favourite moments of the race: Thomas Frischknecht is properly “fed” by Jose Antonio Hermida Ramos.

Leigh Donovan completed her lap with her daughter.

Myles Rockwell put the hammer down right from the beginning and started to pull off from the rest of the field by the end of the second lap.

Leigh Donovan shows some skill.

Greg Herbold didn’t complete many laps, but he was cheered all the way through the race.

Cross country riding, Myles Rockwell-style.

Albert Iten

Multiple Olympic and World Champion, Paola Pezzo.

Yours truly and the might Greg Herbold and his truly amazing bike.

Myles Rockwell tries to make the already sizeable gap between him and his pursuers even bigger.

A chase group I will never forget: Ned Overend, Thomas Frischknecht, Brian Lopes and Filip Meirhaeghe.

With one lap to go, Lopes decided to distance himself from the rest of the field and broke away from the chase group.

Though it turned out to be proper, serious racing, they all had a lot of fun.

Stylish end to an amazing race, by Myles Rockwell.

Brian Lopes finished second…

… with Thomas Frischknecht at third.

This was another hilarious moment: two doping-control chaperons turned up after the race, just like in case of a real race. There was a twist, however: they were handing out beers and they were Greg Minnaar and Steve Peat.

“Next race in 2020?”

Brian Lopes explains how he managed to get rid of the rest of the riders in the group.

Leigh Donovan and her adorable daughter.

Another memento of this crazy night.

A true legend.

UCI head honcho, Peter Van Der Abeele and Brian Lopes.

Monkey and Frischi.

It was an truly dazzling night and the fact that you probably won’t see these guys riding together anytime soon, made it a whole lot more special. I know that am very, very lucky to be there and will remember this race forever.

Racing on home soil is always a special thing, Emily Batty’s face was smiling accordingly.

Soon-to-be-bronze-medalist Paula Gorycka crashed hard on in the first lap on the toughest descend of the course. This, however, didn’t stop her to finish the rest of the race in a remarkable style.

It wasn’t Gorycka only, who had problems with this bit of the course.

She didn’t start to well but then worked her way up to the leading group and in two laps she arrived behind Annie Last, who was in the lead from the start.

Few of the many Emily Batty supporters.

Annie Last rode remarkably through the entire race and led the field. This is her antepenultimate lap and even though she was leading the race at this point, Engen was only a couple of seconds behind her.

Though she is covered with dust, she consistently made up her way to the third position.

The well-deserved and happy smile of Alexandra Engen at the finish line.

Yes, it is her – and she was racing. I remember Leigh Donovan from the my teens when I read all the mountain biking mags from the first till the last page and she was definitely a hero of mine. I didn’t know that she was still racing so it was a great surprise to see her at the start line. She put down a decent effort, and we will see her in the final on Sunday.

Leigh Donovan’s pre-race seconds.

Tracy Moseley hitting the pedals hard on the top section of the course, she was the fastest yesterday.

After watching these guys for a long season, it’s sometimes tricky to recognize them in their national colours – had I not checked his race number, I would have missed Andrew Neethling.

Just for your reference: this rock was roughly as high as me and I’m 6’4″. Scary stuff.

Aaron Gwin

The winner of the women’s race: Sabrina Jonnier. Rachel Atherton crashed at an upper section of the course and didn’t finish the race.

When should the battery die in the main light? Of course when someone important comes around, like Gee Atherton on this picture. All the previous shots were properly lit. Sometimes you’re just unlucky.

The view is absolutely stunning, even though the clouds cover much of it.

Short of being purple, it definitely looks like a Milka cow

The official time-keeping device at the start.

French rider Fabien Pedemanaud made one timed run, his 5:03.09 time was the 36th, 48 second behind timed training winner Samuel Blenkinsop.

I was sitting comfortably in a nice little ditch, in a romantically cold stream of water, when Fort William winner Gee Atherton stopped right in front of me, to measure up a tricky section of the course.

Greg Minnaar during his last practice run before the qualification run.

Tracy Moseley qualified for tomorrow’s finals at the fourth place.

Steve Peat

I was quite proud as I chose the same place to photograph the qualifying run as photographer legend, Sven Martin. We had a quick chat, he’s a really nice guy..