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Liz - 05/13/2008: Hi again Graham. Your harrowing shots of Zabrinskie & McGee on their way to hospital prompt me to wonder who now looks after them, organises their onward travel home, etc? Their teams have moved on, so do the insurers attend to that, or does the organisation have a "social services" team? Hi LIz, the race ambulance takes them to the nearest hospital, and unless they are seriously injured, they get treated and released the same day - a team assistant usually comes to pick the wounded up and either takes him back to the team hotel that evening or directly on to a plane home. The ones needing to stay overnight in hospital get the same pick-up/despatch treatment the next day, but if it is a longer stay, then friends or family usually come to help... GW
jhop - 05/06/2008: Graham, the exclusion of Astana was unfair, as everyone knows, yet the late addition to the GIRO should serve notice that they are doing things right? If the Tour feels that it is best served without the defending champion and let other teams that have had riders dope participate. Then what is there true point? Cofidas, Rabobank, and a few others had guilty riders, don't punish teams....the riders are suspended and they punish the team without proving team doping...can they somehow get in if they show good form in the GIRO or is it a shut case? Hi John, I agree with your surmise about Astana's exclusion from the Tour being unfair, and the Giro acceptance is a great step in the right direction. But the French have a much harder time in turning around at the last minute - history says that they will not change their ways and let Astana in. The Giro is a smaller race than the Tour, and modest enough to realise the benefits of having Contador, Leipheimer and Kloden in its race - the Tour does not have this vision. Even if it did suddenly want to invite Astana, the Tour is so huge that it could not change its line-up so late in the day. Supposing a Rabobank, Cofidis or High Road (ex-Mobile) rider got into trouble before the end of June - the Tour is more likely to start with one team less than change its arrangements at the last moment. I am sure this is why Astana is sending its best team to the Giro - it knows the door is shut in France. GW
Jeska - 05/04/2008: Hi Graham, I'm going to be traveling to Italy in October to see the Giro di Lombardia. I'm staying in Bellagio and am torn on whether to stay and watch the climb to the Madonna del Ghisallo or wait in Como for the finish (I don't think I could watch the climb and make it to the finish in time). What is your favorite spot on the course between the two towns? Any good post race celebration spots that you recommend? Love your work! Thanks! ~Jeska Hi Jeska, staying in Bellagio sounds great - it is one of Italy's nicest lakeside villages. It is hard to answer your question as the race-route won't be declared until a few weeks before the race, it changes a bit each year. Based on last year's race, I THINK you can see them climb the Ghisallo and then drive to Como on a parallel road. The problem is that Como is boxed-in between the lake and a host of roads and villages, making entry into Como a nightmare. You could consider cycling to see the Ghisallo, then descending back against the route into Bellagio, and reaching Como by the quieter lake-road...a car might be better for speed, but then you'll get stuck in traffic on the approach to Como. You could do a clever thing and leave your car on the west side of the lake, cycle up the Ghisallo, cycle down to Bellagio and dump your bike at your hotel. Then jump on the 20-minute ferry across to Tremezzo where you drive your car to Como. You can either see the finish, or see the race as it descends down from the San Fermo della Battaglia... GW
Liz - 05/04/2008: Hi Graham. Romandie has provided some beautiful shots but Stage 4, 2nd image, caption "The scenery's got no worse..." Right. And images don't get much better. (I had to order a print.) You must get great satisfaction from such a lovely composition - or do you get more of a kick from capturing a fleeting moment of drama? Hi Liz, I definitely get more satisfaction from capturing a great piece of scenery, because no-one sees the scenic shots that don't work out! A scenic shot is more under your control, as you select all aspects of the shot. An action image depends so much on the cyclists in the shot - what they are doing, why they are doing it, and where they are doing it. I'm just a curious observer at such times - with a camera ready in my hand, of course... GW
Alan B - 05/04/2008: After Bruyneel's boys winning three different week-long 2008 stage races, featuring three different riders, and no hint of chemical turpitude, the Giro organizers have seen fit to invite to the Palermo starting line, to contest the Maglia Rosa, the man from Santa Rosa and his Astana team mates. That squad seemingly will include all three of those victors. WHO do you think will be the nominal team leader, and beyond that, do you see the Tour de France organizers entering the confessional booth at Notre Dame, then exiting after an absolution, to extend a Tour invitation for Leipheimer and friends? Hi Alan, I have a suspicion that the Giro always planned to invite Astana anyway, it was just a question of them maximising publicity in the lead-up to next weekend's start. Although RCS, ASO and Unipublic are in the same bed these days, RCS (the Italians) always wanted to put one over the French organisers, just to remind them that they have their own independence whenever they want it. Still, it is unlikely that Astana will get into this year's Tour, which is why they are sending in the 'A' team to the Giro. If a Tour-invited team does something wrong in the next month or so, then maybe Astana might get an entry, but I very much doubt it. At least this way, the French organisers are made to look even more stupid than before - they're totally isolated now. If you look at the mountains in the last week, it has to be Contador's race, at least from an Astana point of view. The Spaniard will have great support in the mountains from Kloden and Levi, and from the rest of the team on the flatter stages. I suppose there could be a problem if Levi is way ahead of Contador after the mid-point TT, for he can climb with the best, most of the time. It just means the team has a trio of great options to fall back on, and whoever wins will win because of the team's help. I love the thought of Astana going to the Giro - the Italians must be furious! GW
Robby L. - 05/03/2008: Hi Graham Thanks for all your "tips" you have made my life as a Sports Photographer so much easier. I had a sort of diffrent question, who was the leading Cycling Photographer before you came along, I say leading because your images and "Eye" are awesome!! Thanks again for the great photos!! and Pro Tips.. Hi Robby, just so you know I consider myself as one of the leaders in my business, but thanks for the compliment. I suppose there were two photographers who led the way when I came along in the early-1980's. One was Cor Vos, who still takes some cycling pictures but employs another photographer to do most of the races, and Aldo Tonnoir, a Belgian who retired a few years back. Tonnoir had the best eye for an image, Vos had the best technique... GW
Luis Mucino - 04/30/2008: Hi Graham, I´ve been following the recent Classics and found them just amazing. I think that kind on cycling is very different from stage races and in these days I don´t see a rider that can win a cobbled Classic and also a major Tour. Maybe Cadel. Do you see anyone else who can win in both scenarios? Thanks in advance. Hola Luis, you have to realise there are two types of one-day Classic - flat ones with cobbles (Flanders and Roubaix), and hilly ones with no cobbles Fleche, Amstel and Liege). No cobbled specialist can win a major stage-race these days, whereas a winner of Fleche Wallonne or Liege-Bastogne-Liege can win a major stage-race. DiLuca won Liege and the Giro in 2007, for example... But even a hilly one-day classic is often won by a man who can climb and sprint - see Alejandro Valverde in this year's Liege. Until Valverde wins a major stage-race, we cannot add him to the DiLuca list... Cadel Evans could have won Liege, and he might well win the Tour, let's wait and see... Basically a one-day Classic is one by someone with a sharp burst of speed - that goes for cobbled and hilly Classics... GW
Alan B - 04/26/2008: There seems to be a serious move afoot to ban rider race radios, perhaps as early as this year's Tour de France. What is your take on that, as it relates to the impact on team strategy, dramatic value for spectators, and your job as an event photographer? Hi Alan, it will only change my job in so far as the racing will be less predictable, but that in itself will make it more photogenic. The riders have some issues with it - for and against - but I believe the sport needs a fresh-start, and the Tour would be a great place to begin. Team managers will hate it, it means they revert to driving a car, handing out race-numbers the night before - and hoping that the team captain does his job 'on the road'. Nothing more sophisticated than that! The spectators will love it, it's like a new beginning. But let's just remember it will be the UCI that decides ultimately, as there are also a few safety issues about up-coming road hazards. I'm all for a big change - and some people want helmets removed for uphill finishes! GW
PJW - 04/24/2008: Graham, After yesterday's rain-soaked Fleche Wallone how have your camera's held up. Are they flooded out or will they be OK for the Liege. Do you have them serviced after events such as this, or the Roubaix, or do you wait till the end of the classiscs.?? Hi Paul, my new cameras are doing okay - they've got soaked quite a few times since California, but so far, so good. There are fewer moving parts than in a film camera, and the prism is enclosed-in, so the major problem is lengthy exposure to rain, and the condensation that builds up with temperature differences. I'm having the two D3's cleaned after the Tour de Romandie, it usually rains there so there's no point in cleaning them before. GW
Stephen. - 04/22/2008: Hello Graham I have a workflow question for you. I have recently been covering a few cycling races when i am not racing myself in the south east of England. After reading that you shoot in j-peg format i have decided that this is a good move due to volume and time behind a screen. I have found a look i am happy with in the optimize image function on my Nikon d40x, +2 sharpening +1 tone compensation, mode 3a, sat and hue set to 0. The photos look cool on the lcd and i am happy. But when i then run them through Lightroom they are set to the Adobe default settings of that program and the images change slightly. I was wondering if you do use Lighroom still and if so do you import your files with your own custom preset, or do you work from the default setting that is applied from the software before you export them.Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated to speed up my time on the laptop. You seem to nail the colours just right or maybe i can convince my girlfriend that a D3 is the only way to move forward!!! Jeez, Stephen...you're blinding me with all that tech' talk - cut it out, will you?! A D3 will stop all that unnecessary fiddling with sharpening/tone/mode 3a, bullshit, that's all I can say. But your camera doesn't need all that stuff anyway - it's the photographer that makes the shot work. Do away with the extras and concentrate on getting the image in focus and well exposed yourself. I do use Lightroom when I'm archiving a ton of scanned-in images to my database, but I don't dare touch it for colour corrections, etc, as it has a strange mind all of its own. It's part of the Adobe family, but it sets its own rules, so to speak... Is your girlfriend rich? GW
Mike Owens - 04/20/2008: Hello Graham, I wrote to you awhile back about the section of pave near Ennevelin where you took the legendary "Bob Roll" photo. Please see www.gtcbike.org as the road is nearly the same 20 years later. Thanks. -Mike Hi MIke, yep it looks to be in the same state as the last time they used this section, which I think was in 1992-93 with Duclos-Lasalle on his own there.. Nice memories! GW
Lucas G. - 04/16/2008: Thanks for some great Paris-Roubaix photos this year Graham. I see from a lot of them that Magnus Backsted was always towards the front. From what you saw did it look like he had a chance to win this year or place top ten? Thanks, Lucas Lucas, no-one is too sure what happened to Magnus in P-R - he looked good early-on, and staying at the front was a sign of him wanting to stay out of trouble until the elite group formed. I think he then got caught up in a crash before the Wallers-Arenberg forest, and at that point winded himself chasing to get back to the front - if he had been in top-10 shape, he should have got back to the front, but he didn't... GW
Greg Long - 04/14/2008: Graham - thanks for hosting your images from last-night's Paris-Roubaix 2008 - especially enjoying the captions. You mentioned in a recent response your interest in using D-Lighting (in preference to fill-flash) on the Nikon D3 and I note it appears you've done same for Paris-Roubaix? Are you happy with the results (I certainly would be - the shadows under helmets are sensational as is contrast and saturation). I use a D3 & D300 for Canberra cycling events and am thinking of doing away with fill-flash (late afternoon crits) in favour of D-Lighting - what's your assessment - have you trialled D-Lighting at the various settings and how do they look to you in the LCD display? All the best Greg Hi Greg, it's too early to give a full answer regards the LCD display, as I need to use the D3 in a greater variety of situations, this 'll be during the summer probably. And I still haven't decided on the use of flash with the D3 - it works well with the 70-200mm, but is very un-predictable with the 14-24mm and 24-70mm. I often get one flash-fire in every three shots with those lenses, and that's not good - maybe there's a new flash in the way from Nikon, because something is not right. The D-Lighting is too good to not use, so for now that's how most of my shots are being done. I see a near future with me using one D3 with D-Lighting, and a D1x with old-fashioned fill-flash - just for the summery stages races like the Giro, Tour and Vuelta where the sun is high in the sky. GW
Jonathan, Adelaide - 04/14/2008: Hi Graham, Good to see you survived Paris Roubaix considering I saw you on the television wearing number 13. My question is, I noticed some guys on motorbikes wearing blue outfits. What was their purpose as they didn't seem to be doing anything. Crowd dispersion perhaps? Regards Jonathan ...ooh, La la Jonathan..! Those 'guys in blue outfits' could have been Gendarmes - none less than the Garde Republicaine - or mobile time-keepers of ASO. The Gendarmes travel on trail-bikes for the day and constantly overtake the race to secure junctions and obstacles. The time-keepers travel behind the escapers, chasers and main group armed with stopwatches and a GPS satellite tracking system to calculate time-gaps. Sometimes they appear to be doing nothing, but their job is vital as it provides 'radio tour' with information used by the teams to plan tactics, and by the press and organisation. I'm not superstitious, so I'll happily wear a No 13 photographer's bib every day... GW
Gina B. - 04/07/2008: Dear Mr. Graham, I've been trying to take photos of a local cycling team but most of the races now are at 6 am in the dark with no sunlight, how do I get quality shots at night and on cloudy mornings? Thank You so much! Gina Hi Gina, without knowing what camera gear you own, it's hard to give advice. But using flash seems the obvious choice in the dark, using it with the camera shutter at about 1/60 of-a-second to give the images a nice 'speedy' effect. You can use flash with a long lens or a wide-angle lens; most decent flash guns are made to detect which lens is being used and to throw out more power or less, according to the lens you have in the camera. You need to stand on a corner or on a part of the circuit where you can see the cyclists coming well before they get to you - that way you can anticipate when your local boys are going to be passing your camera. Practice makes perfect, so do it as often as you can. GW
mike - 04/07/2008: I used to have a book with great cycling photos from the 80's era of cycling and have forgotten the title. Some of the photos included in that book where from the Bordeaux-Paris motorpaced race, etc. and others showing action from "inside" the race and not typically what was shown in other cycling publications. Are some of the photos in that book from you? Can you give me an idea what that book might be called? Any info would be helpful. thanks - mike Hi Mike, would it have been the 'Fabulous World of Cycling'? This was a book put out in the late-1980's by a Belgian photographer called Aldo Tonnoir - it was a massive collection of about 20 years work, and included some detail on the careers of Eddy Merckx, Bernard Thevenet, Roger DeVlaeminck, etc... It might have been seen in French or Flemish, but the English translation was as above. I'm too young to have had my work published in that book... GW
Alan B - 04/07/2008: Having watched Sunday's Versus two-hour coverage, and viewed your gallery of the race, like everyone else I was very impressed by Stijn Devolder's final solo attack over the last few hills for the victory in the 2008 Ronde van Vlanderen. As he's already had some stage race success, you see him as having the climbing legs in the big passes of the Pyrenees and Alps to challenge riders like last year's runner-up Cadel Evans in this July's Tour de France? Alan, Devolder had a dream to make the podium of the 2007 Vuelta a España - it became a nightmare instead. Stijn is strong, steady lowlander who can climb certain gradients in the mountains. But he is no-where near skinny enough to climb with the climbers... Mind you, this Flanders success might be the making of the man, at last, so at least we will see him in a newer light from now on... GW
Alan B - 03/27/2008: Nice shots of Alberto Contador taking total command of the Vuelta Ciclista a Castilla y León. Too bad the race leader's jersey isn't yellow, instead of that burgundy color, as the color coordination would have been a lot prettier! I wonder why ALL races don't use le maillot JAUNE for the overall leader? I agree, Alan - that wine-coloured jersey is pretty awful! Maybe it is that colour because that part of Spain produces some of the best wines in Europe, Ribero del Duero - it comes from the area sandwiched between Valladolid, Burgos and Leon, and is well worth drinking if you get the chance! GW
Liz - 03/27/2008: Hi Graham. Heard loud & clear on Spanish TV: the stoical spectators on Montaña Palestina shouting not just "Alberto!" but "Astana!" Did ASO intend to create a whole team of hero-martyrs? They've surely done it in Spain. Have you noted it anywhere else? Hi Liz, I think fans from Spain have to cheer for Astana as it is Contador's team. I noticed some German fans cheering at the Amstel Gold in 2007, with an Astana flag; they were cheering Kloden in principal. Maybe Astana is making friends at last, it will still take quite a while though... GW
Allan O.A. - 03/25/2008: Hi Graham, great shots at Milan San Remo. What was your usual setting for Aperture and Shutter speed while taking shots riding a motorbike? Also, what happened to Paolo Bettini? He was on the lead but finished at 5'46. Thanks a lot! Hi Allan, I usually use about 1/500th of a second, with the camera then deciding the aperture for me. That was with the Nikon D2X - with the D3, I can wack up the asa value to as high as I want with no loss of quality. This allows me to shoot at a extra-high shutter speed - maybe 1,000-of-a-second or more - and still have a decent depth-of-field. Bettini? He's all fight and no spark at the moment, but he's doing exactly what he wants - show himself on TV for his sponsor and achieve a hard training ride at the same time... GW

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