What a night! After a long hiatus, I decided that I needed some proper cycling action and this weekend’s IG Markets London Nocturne race was just the perfect occasion for that. I’ve only been to a criterium race once before but that race had been fun and exciting to watch so I was really keen on shooting this race. I’d asked my colleague, Andy to give me a hand and he happily obliged, so I had known before that race that I could work with two flashes.
Shooting the race(s) turned out to be a bit harder than I expected, as the marshals weren’t informed properly and they didn’t let anyone cross the course at the official crossing points during races, not even us, accredited photographers. At the end of the day, it made our lives a bit more complicated, but because I had Andy with the other flash always on the other side of the course, I wasn’t that much limited by this whole malarkey.
Though I arrived a bit late-ish, I got to see a bit of everything: the amateurs’ race, the women’s battle, the hilarious penny farthing bikes’ race, the folding bike race and then finally, the elite men’s race. It was absolutely brilliant, it was hard to believe how fast these guys ride. Absolutely stunning. What was even more impressive was the way Team Sky’s Alex Dowsett pulled away from the peloton and within 30 minutes, he lapped the entire field! From then on, the rest of the field fought for the second and third places and boy, did they fight hard!
As all good comes, the race came to an end after 50 minutes + 5 laps and we all went home after the awards ceremony. It’s been a great evening, lot of fun and great racing. Check out the photos below and again, thanks Andy, you’re the best, I couldn’t have done it without you.
