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Best of 2012

balint — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 12:35:24 +0000

I really don’t like these end of the year ‘best of’ galleries. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge sucker for reminiscing but it’s very frustrating that I have to whittle it down to 10 photos. But that’s the nature of the beast and it was good to relive a few key moments from this year.

I would like to thank you, my dear reader, that you keep coming back, read my blogposts and I can only hope that my viewing my photos bring you as much joy to you as shooting them brings to me. I’ve got great plans for 2013, another book is in the pipeline (but more on that in the next year), thank you for your attention, it wouldn’t be possible without you. Bring it on 2013!

The craziest race I’ve ever been to: the cyclocross World Championships at Koksijde. All photographers were herded into a few cordoned off areas, so I was quite happy that I managed to pull off a unique image while I was surrounded by dozens of photographers.

A short but great trip to Switzerland in June. I spent a few days with the BMC Racing Team and I took this shot of team mechanic Kevin Grove cleaning a then-prototype BMC TMR01.

One of my most liked photos this year was this one of Manuel Fumic, wearing baggy shorts at a World Cup race instead of the usual bib shorts.

The highlight of the summer has clearly been the Olympics. I was fortunate enough to spend at least a half day in the Velodrome and I’ve managed to add another ‘Sir Chris Hoy at the Olympics’ photo to my archives.

Kaitlin Antonneau and her determined look at the Plzen cyclocross World Cup this year.

Niels Albert has been using these pimp TRP brakes all season but I haven’t done a close-up shot until the Gieten Superprestige race.

This was my favourite angle on that day, it was a shame, though that the tree in the foreground fooled the autofocus and only a fraction of the photos were sharp. This is one of them.

Wietse Bosmans’ leg and bike during the Hamme-Zogge Superprestige race.

Tim Johnson refreshes himself after the Zolder cyclocross World Cup race.

It was good to see Zdenek Stybar doing ‘veldrijden’ again. It was even better that one of my favourite action shots of the year was of him, tackling the pump track at Loenhout.

Looking back on 2012

balint — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 10:19:55 +0000

This is the second time that the end of the year finds me in Belgium, in the middle of the cyclocross season. Albeit a bit arbitrarily, but New Year’s Eve is the start of something new for most people. Looking back on the previous year, hatching plans, new beginnings and the compulsory new year resolutions. For me, and I believe for most of us in the cyclocross bubble, it’s not really a watershed moment.

New Year’s Eve is just another night and one goes to bed reasonably early, as the New Year has to start early in order to get to the GP Sven Nys in Baal on time…

That being said, it’s good to look back the past calendar year as it’s been a busy one. So here are twelve little stories for 2012 – the post with the 10 best photos will go live on the 31st.

The new year brought a new bike sponsor for Zdenek Stybar – Omega Pharma – Quickstep switched from Eddy Merckx bikes to Specialized. While a few other cross teams also switched to new bikes, Specialized managed to steal the show with Styby’s new pink Specialized Crux which commemorated the first off-road Specialized bike that had had the same colours, almost 30 years ago. The icing on the cake was the pink fedora Styby was parading in before the race – it was a refreshingly unusual sight.

When Belgian cyclocross legend, Paul Herygers won the World Championships in 1994, my fellow Hungarian, Gabor Schneider was also in the race. He, however, was on the other end of the field, he was dead last when he was about to be lapped by Herygers. This happened in the finish straight and out of courtesy, Schneider provided cover from the wind for Herygers for the duration of the long and windy straight. Herygers never looked back and won the Worlds and Schneider was called out. Cue to the 2012 Krawatencross: the organisers had invited Schneider to the Oldies race in the morning and that was when I saw this guy in Hungarian national kit. It was quite a surprise and it definitely made my day.

One of the biggest events in 2012 was when I finished the Cyclocross 2011/2012 book in March. It was the fruit of hard work for three months and I had Kriszta, my lovely designer and Caroline, my lovely content contributor to help me to pull it all together. Plus there were a lot of other people who helped me to make it happen. Thank you very much.

A small step in the cycling business but a big leap for me when this double page spread of my photo of Stybar winning in Lievin was used in a Specialized ad in Procycling.

In May, I started using Instagram. It’s a fun little app and in the last few months I started to use it quite regularly and I started to enjoy it – it’s a shame that I’ll probably leave it in January, once the new T&C kicks in.

Also in May, my book’s launch was held in London, a nice little evening, dedicated to cyclocross and I had invited a special guest: Zdenek Stybar himself came for the launch to London. Thanks for everybody who was there that night.

During one of my trips back to home, I stumbled upon a big stack of old photos. There were about 10 rolls of films of my early attempts at cycling photography. Well, those were the only days and the use of film meant it was a totally different game. You can see the photos here, here and here.

August was dominated by the Olympics. I was lucky enough to see bits of all disciplines, except for the BMX.

One of the most fun adventures of the year was the Tour de Eurobike. Six colleagues of mine decided to ride from Gatwick to Eurobike (in Friedrichshaven, Germany). The distance was more than a thousand kilometers and they covered it in five days. I shot and edited a short film for every day of the ride, which was very demanding and tiring but immensely fun, even though I had spent my birthday with a bunch of lyrca-clad guys.

I was back in my beloved Belgium in October. Last year, I was complaining a lot about the too good weather – that hasn’t been a problem this year, most of the races have been pretty muddy, so all is well on that front. And shooting cross is still the best thing ever. Seriously.

One of the most exciting project at work by the end of the year has been the launch of Hoy Bikes, the bike range of Sir Chris Hoy. It allowed me to work with Sir Chris numerous times, shooting photos and videos. These materials are to be kept under wraps for now, but they will be out in 2013, so keep an eye out for them.

1998 Grundig World Cup in Budapest, Hungary

balint — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 00:27:55 +0000

After the 1997 Grundig XC World Cup, Budapest was once more included in the World Cup calendar. It seems an unlikely feat to this day, given that Hungary has never been dominant in any cycling discipline, let alone mountain biking. But Dave Erickson, Mountain Bike Action Hungary’s editor-in-chief managed to make the seemingly impossible happen and bring the race to Hungary for a third and last time.

I remember the race vividly for two reasons. Firstly, this was the first time I have ever asked a girl out. At the time, I worked at a local McDonald’s restaurant and I used to work with this girl who was really into cycling. We went for a few rides together, I concluded that she liked cycling enough to invite her to the race. I mean can you imagine a more fitting venue for a first date? The plan worked like magic (not), we went to see the elite women’s race on Saturday, it was pissing down and I was pretty busy taking photos and we didn’t get to chat much. In hindsight, I can see why it didn’t work out.

The other memorable thing was that I was tasked to write the race report for Mountain Bike Action Hungary – which was a massive coup for me because the magazine was THE mountain biking mag in Hungary, so it was quite an honour to write for them. I can’t remember why they had thought it was a good idea to give me this job but I was very happy and nervous to equal measures, as this was my first ever assignment.

It went well, I did a nervous interview on Saturday with the Chantal Daucourt, the lovely Swiss rider who won the women’s race. We met at the bar of the official hotel and chatted for a while. She was very friendly and patient with me, the novice reporter.

Based on this experience, I thought the interview on Sunday with the winner would be equally easy. Not quite so. Thomas Frischknecht won the race and he was ecstatic as this had been his first World Cup win for almost a year. We agreed to meet up in his hotel after the podium ceremony but his hotel turned out to be quite far from the race venue, so it took me some time to get there. When I got there, reality exceeded my imagination: cycling legend Thomas Frischknecht was running around in women’s underwear and he kept necking a gigantic bottle of champaign. I was quite surprised and got a bit worried because it was obvious that the interview wasn’t going to happen – not in THAT state anyway.

I started chatting to his coach, who was pretty drunk by then as well. He insisted that I could ask all the questions I wanted to ask from Frischi from him and his answers would have been just as good as Frischi’s. As far as I remember, I managed to get squeeze a few words out of Frischi and then I chatted with his coach for a while, he was really nice, but he repeatedly begged me not to take photos of the intoxicated Frischknecht, which I didn’t do.

All in all, it was a pretty remarkable weekend, the only sad aspect was that we knew this was probably the last time we’d ever seen pro riders in Hungary. Unfortunately, that prophecy turned out to be true: that was the last time when the best of the best raced in Hungary.

Read about the 1995 Grundig World Cup in Budapest…
Read about the 1997 Grundig World Cup in Budapest…

Cutting edge Scott DH bike

Laurence Leboucher prepares for the women’s race

The start of the elite women’s race. The rider in the front in the Ritchey kit is the British Caroline Alexander

Alison Sydor struggles in the mud. Note the disc brakes on her Cannondale.

Tammy Jaques-Grewal after the race.

Alison Dunlap gives a post-race interview

Chantal Daucourt won the last MTB World Cup race in Budapest

The women’s podium (left to right): Alison Sydor, Alison Dunlap, Chantal Daucourt, Gunn-Rita Dahle and Marga Fullana

Gunn-Rita Dahle

Minutes before the start of the elite men’s race. Rune Hoydahl and Cadel Evans chat in the foreground, while Dario Cioni looks colourful in his Mapei jersey.

Jerome Chiotti smiles at me. Note Costa Rican Jose Andres Brenes on the left in Ritchey kit. Is the Diamondback guy Dave Wiens?

David ‘Tinker’ Juarez fiddles with the helmet strap, while Jan Ostergaard looks intently in the background

Thomas Frischknecht and an unknown Scott rider behind him

Rune Hoydahl looks worried

Hmmm…

Seconds before the start

And they are off! Lennie Kristensen leads the field into the first corner.

This is later in the race, not long before the finish, Frischknecht put a massive gap between him and his pursuers

Frischi cleans himself up before the climbing on the top of the podium

Miguel Martinez

The podium (left to right): Cadel Evans, Miguel Martinez, Thomas Frischknecht, Huber Pallhuber and Christophe Dupouey

Managed to catch Alison Sydor for a quick snap

1995 Grundig XC World Cup in Budapest, Hungary

balint — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 21:21:26 +0000

After my post last week about the 1997 Grundig MTB XC Wold Cup in Budapest, I stumbled upon my photos from 1995 – the first time I saw the best mountain bike riders riding our favourite trails. It was a dream coming true and to make it even more special, it was organized in Csilleberc.

Csilleberc used to be an elite pioneer centre/camp back in the communist times, it was a special place, where only the most privileged kids were allowed to go and spend a week or two during the summer, engaging in pioneer activities. It was a bit like boyscouts but because it was compulsory, everybody hated it and only busybodies were the ones who fought hard for the privilege to go. That being said, we were all a bit jealous when said busybody was off for a week to the mystical pioneer camp at Csilleberc.

Given its history, you can imagine how excited we were when we realised that we would be allowed to roam freely the once exclusive camp, it just added another level of excitement to the already very high expectations.

I got into mountain biking in 1993 and we all had crappy bikes we were just mucking around, so you can imagine how amazing the whole World Cup circus was, with all the team trucks, the amazing bikes, the superfit riders, the whole thing was just magical.

That being said, my photos sucked. Mind you, I was only 16 at this point, without any serious knowledge how to operate a camera and without the ambition to become a photographer so again: apologies for the rubbish photos.

I do remember, however, how proud I was of photo #3, the one with Alison Sydor. At that point, I hadn’t heard of panning, so it was just a lucky moment and I was shooting with my Dad’s old Zenit E. It’s not particularly well composed but Alison Sydor is very sharp: had I composed that photo properly, it would have been a picture I could have been proud of. Shoulda, coulda, woulda. Next in the line is the 1998 World Cup at some point this week.

The start area. Two more laps to go for the elite women.

Alison Sydor and Paola Pezzo start their last lap.

This is the accidental panning shot I was very proud of at the time.

1992 World Champion Silvia Furst

Blurry photo of the legendary Juli Furtado

Unknown Specialized rider jumps through an obstacle.

Jan Ostergaard, the unexpected winner of the race. He rode this odd, Corratec bike with that very unusual bow-like frame design and some terrible tyres that aimed for low rolling resistance but the trade-off was that they didn’t provide Ostergaard with ANY traction. He was so upset about it that he complained about to the press after the race.

1997 Grundig World Cup in Budapest, Hungary

balint — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 12:45:43 +0000

A couple of months ago I was at home and my Dad gave gave me a handful of old photos I took back in the ninties. Among the personal photos, there were quite a few from the three Grunding World Cup races held in Budapest. I’m yet to find photos from the very first race in 1995, but in a series of three posts, I’ll show the photos I took in 1997, 1998, plus my first ever World Cup abroad in Kaprun in 2001.

Going through the photos I remembered how excited we were to have the biggest show in mountain biking in Budapest, having all the riders we’ve only seen in the magazines come to Budapest! After the elation of the race in 1995, the second race in 1997 was even more exciting.

The course of the race remained similar to the original course from ’95 and those who lived in Budapest rode the WC course as often as possible, pretending that we were Frischknecht or Martinez.

To be honest, I can’t remember much from the race, apart from the fact that they climbed the ‘Terminator’ climb at a blistering pace. The ‘Terminator’ was the hardest climb in that area and us, mere mortals could only climb it on the granny ring, and even then only just, so seeing the pros storm up there on the middle ring five or six times seemed utterly unreal.

The other thing I remember is the camera I used. It was my Dad’s Zenit E, an old and outdated Russian SLR from the early seventies. Obviously, it lacked any kind of modern features like autofocus and the light metering was also a bit awkward, you had to take you eyes off the viewfinder and check a gauge on the top of the camera to see how much light there was. All in all, it was hard work but at the time it was good enough.

These are scanned photos and I didn’t do any kind of digital enhancement, so apologies if the colours are odd here and there and some of them are slightly blurry or otherwise compromised.

This was the famous David ‘Tinker’ Juarez’s bike, hung in front of the team truck. Note the high end Avid Arch Rival brake, Avid’s answer to the then-new Shimano V-brakes.

All the big names of the time in front row: Paola Pezzo (1), Alison Sydor (2) and Lesley Tomlinson (3). Tomlinson’s bike was equipped with a Marzocchi Bomber, a strong alternative to Rock Shox’s Judy. If I remember correctly, the Bombers were said to be smoother but heavier than the Judys.

And they’re off! Here you can also see Alison Dunlap (4), a then up and coming rider.

Alison Sydor powers up on the Terminator

One of my favourite riders, Chantal Daucourt.

Alison Sydor again.

Paola Pezzo halfway on the Terminator climb. This was a strong year for her, she’d won the Olympics in the previous year and she went on to win the overall World Cup title in that year.

I remember, it was a mad dash from the ‘Terminator’ climb to this climb but I managed to catch the front of the race.

I like this shot of Paola Pezzo, though it’s a shame its orientation is portrait and not landscape.

The post-race press conference with winner Alison Dunlap (r), Nadia De Negri (m) and Paola Pezzo (l)

Alison Dunlap in front of the GT team truck.

My hero, Thomas Frischknecht warms up for the race. It seems that bar ends were still fashionable at the time.

The start line-up of the elite men’s race: Jerome Chiotti (2), Rune Hoydahl (5), and Cadel Evans (1) and Kirk Molday (6). In the background, you can see Michael Rasmussen, Nick Craig and Jan Oostergaard.

Then current World Champion, Jerome Chiotti. In 2000 he admitted to using EPO which consequently resulted in him losing his World Champion title. It was awarded retrospectively to Thomas Frischknecht, but he was quite upset, understandably, as Chiotti’s feat denied him of standing on the top of the podium and of wearing the rainbow jersey the next year.

Cadel Evans powers up on the ‘Terminator’ climb on his Diamondback bike.

Jan Ostergaard wasn’t a well known rider but us, Hungarians, remembered him well enough as he was the winner of the first World Cup race in 1995.

Miguel Martinez rides his rigid (!) bike. Note the Spinergy wheels – they used to be super cool and super expensive.

Frischi on the ‘Terminator’. Note that he was using a double chainset, years before any other rider.

Frischi again.

The winner was Christophe Dupouey. Sadly, he commited suicide in 2009.

The podium with Cadel Evans (l), Christophe Dupouey (m) and Miguel Martinez (r)

Another podium shot. The guy in the hi-vis vest is Dave Erickson, the organiser of the race, an American who lived in Hungary for a couple of years and he managed to pull everything together for a World Cup race in a country that wasn’t even on the map in off-road cycling.

Cadel Evans retained the leader’s jersey.

And here are some embarrassing photos of me and my favourite riders. Me and Miguel Martinez. The big questions is why didn’t anybody tell me at the time that my haircut was simply unacceptable?

Me and Norwegian Rune Hoydahl and Dane Lennie Kristensen

Me and my favourite female rider, Alison Sydor.

Me and Bart Brentjens

A signed fan card from Brit David Baker.

2012 London Olympics – MTB

balint — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 12:06:20 +0000

An entire country was psyched up last spring to get hold of tickets for the Olympics and be part of the Games. Many were rather disappointed as the demand was way higher than the amount of available tickets and the whole process left with a bitter taste in the mouth.

Earlier this year, there were two more rounds where one could snap up remaining tickets and I was lucky enough to put my hands on two tickets for the women’s mountain bike race. Having already been to an Olympics Games four years ago, in Beijing, I was very happy because I knew how special the race and the day would be.

And special it was. The whole experience was great, getting there and back was long but well-organised and flawless, the course was challenging but very spectator-friendly, the weather couldn’t have been better, a sunny day with a light breeze to prevent us from boiling and fierce racing by the ladies.

I was rooting both for Annie Last, the Team GB rider and Barbara Benko, the Hungarian rider – the latter suffered a mechanical in the first lap and was struggling onwards to finish the race. The day proved to me once again how tough cyclists are. Emily Batty suffered a broken collarbone but she decided to start the race and she soldiered on, crashed at some point and even though she was at the back of the pack, she finished the race nonetheless. Chapeau!

Given that I wasn’t an accredited photographer, moving around and finding good spots were much harder than normally and as spectators most of time weren’t allowed right next to the course, I relied on the 70-200 tele.

Without further ado, here are the photos, also worth checking out my friend’s, Tom Robertson’s gallery, who flew all the way from Montana just for the mountain biking events – that’s what I call dedication.

Norwegian supporters, hoping to see some great performance from Gunn Rita Dahle

Todd Wells practices on the course

Annie Last supporters

Massive crowd gathered for the race

MTB World Cup #3, Nove Mesto na Morave

balint — Sun, 13 May 2012 21:29:39 +0000

After the hectic months of the cyclocross season I took some time off, put down my camera and returned to do things normal human beings normally do, like going out on a Friday evening or having a lie-in on Saturday morning. I quite enjoyed this quiet time but then the opportunity came to come to the Czech Republic to cover the third round of the Rocky Roads UCI Mountain Bike World Cup.

I flew to Budapest, spent some time with my family and then jumped in the car with a friend and spent the weekend in the beautiful Czech countryside. The drive from when we left the motorway to Nove Mesto na Morave was nothing less than spectacular and after a quick recce in the forest revealed that the course was really great, too. Lung-bursting climbs alternated with neck-breaking descents and this isn’t an exaggeration: crazy drop-offs followed buy long and very steep ascents.

Both the women’s and the men’s race was really exciting, the races were open right till the end. In both races, Czech riders fought really hard to win on home soil but they had to settle for podium places: Katerina Nash finished third while Jaroslav Kulhavy finished second in front of a crazy home crowd.

Because the spectators were amazing. While you see at least 20k people at any cyclo-cross race during the season in Belgium, they only cheer the top 20 of any given race, the rest get some moderate support at best. The Czech supporters however, were shouting, clapping and cheering for everyone: the local riders got extra love but each and every rider got ample attention – the atmosphere was truly amazing.

Check out the photos below to see some great jumps and riders tackling tricky sections.

Emily Batty was caught with a less-than-complimentary facial expression.

Czech rider Katerina Nash attacked from the get-go. She was part of the leading group all the way through the race but eventually faded back and finished at third place.

Tracy Moseley held a talk about her life just a week ago in London and she talked extensively about her new career that included her new-found respect to xc riders. Though she was tackling descents with an impressive confidence, she couldn't finish the race was called out with only a lap to go. Still, really good effort.

Pauline Ferrand Prevot flies through the super-rocky 'Rock'n'roll' section

Crosser and Czech rider Pavla Havlikova, right after finishing

An avid Gunn Rita Dahle supporter

The Czech national flag face painting was very popular

The elite men shot off at a blistering pace with Ralph Naf grabbing the holeshot.

The most spectacular part of the course was the 'BMX' section - most riders performed great jumps. First is Manual Fumic - note his unique baggy shorts, never seen anything like that before at a cross country race!

Sam Schultz and his ballsy tailwhip

Cyclo-cross legend Sven Nys opted for the safe-ish option.

The unknown rider did one for the cameras

In an attempt to qualify for the Olympics, Kevin Pauwels decided to race at Nove Mesto. Given this was his first MTB race of the year, he started far behind the favourites and it took him quite some time to get ahead. Starting from 112th place he finished 57th, so there still is some chance to qualify for the Olympics.

After an emphatic win just weeks ago at Houffalize, Julien Absalon was struggling and abandoned the race in lap four

Jaroslav Kulhavy roder hard in front of a home crowd

Sven Nys climbs out of the saddle of an unbranded BMC 29er

There was an extra announcer at the 'Rock'n'roll' section to 'introduce' oncoming riders who were welcomed with a huge cheer while tackling the massive rocks

I didn't know first what was odd about the Kazakh Kirill Kazantsev's bike but after studying the bike for a couple of minutes I spotted the V-brakes on the bike!

After a podium place at Houffalize, Marco Aurelio Fontana finished fourth today

The rock garden looked really gnarly and it attracted all the blood-thirsty photogs.

Tom Meeusen can always deliver a 'very dedicated' face!

Podium girls

Nino Schurter won the race six seconds ahead of Jaroslav Kulhavy

He did his best but couldn't repeat his win from last year. The crowd went still crazy when he crossed the line

Jose Antonio Hermida Ramos celebrates Ralph Naf's 5th place

Sven Nys

Nys, the 'cross legend gets quite a bit of attention from the Belgian media even though the race was quite far away from home

Kulhavy and the Spesh team on the podium

Best of 2010

balint — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 19:33:51 +0000

It’s been a very long year. It started strong, the last bits of the 2009/2010 ‘cross season provided me with some traveling and all of us with a lot of excitement. Then I published my book and after the British ‘Cross Nationals, I took off a couple of weeks to prepare for an even more demanding season: the mountain bike World Cups.

In the meantime, I switched jobs, said goodbye to the lovely guys at vzaar and started to work at Evans Cycles, as a social media guy. I had thought it was the perfect job and it has turned out to be just like that, it feels like the perfect match. It makes writing this blog much harder, but more on that later.

The MTB World Cup season started in late April and four crazy, action-filled month followed: lot of traveling, wonderful places all around Europe and then some more overseas, in the US and Canada.
Throughout the year, I have travelled 20 171 miles, have been to 14 different countries and have spent 75 days on the road altogether.

Up until this point, I have financed these trips from my own savings and even though the MTB World Cups broke even eventually, the previous ‘cross season had hit a too big hole in my budget, so I couldn’t afford to invest into the current ‘cross season. It’s been kind of hard to just sit and don’t be close to the action.

The other problem that came up is that until I joined Evans Cycles, this whole cycling photography and blogging was my hobby, something that soaked up all my cycling-related ambitions and creativity. Now, that I have a job that has an almost identical remit, I find it extremely difficult to create content at work for Evans and at home for Cyclephotos. That was the reason that there were no updates in the last three or four months. I don’t exactly know what will happen in the future, but I combed through my archives and here are a couple of my best shots from 2010. Enjoy and I’m sure in some shape of form I’ll be back in 2011. Happy New Year!

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.

End of Part 1 – more to come soon!

Day 3 and 4 – epic battles at the World Championships

balint — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 13:32:59 +0000

It’s been very busy in the last two days, and due to the unplanned “I am a legend” race, I fell behind schedule, but here’s the tale of Friday and Saturday.

I Am A Legend – stars from the first 20 years of mountain biking

balint — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 08:00:44 +0000

I don’t know how or why, but I wasn’t even aware of this old boys’ race in the afternoon. The loudspeaker warned everybody that the I am a legend race will start in 20 minutes. Back at the media center, I asked for a list of the participating riders and when I got it, I was dazzled: my all time biggest cycling hero, Ned Overend is here, in Mont Sainte Anne! I’ve been trying to get a picture with him since I was 14. So I headed out to the short track to see my childhood heroes.

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.