Tour de France, 16 July 2006: Stage 14
Today, a couple of contrasting images and some answers to some questions from me. Hope you find them interesting.

“GAP, FRANCE – JULY 16: Rik Verbrugghe of Belgium and Cofidis lies in the bushes after he crashed on stage 14 of the 93rd Tour de France July 16, 2006 in between Montelimar to Gap”
Bryn Lennon/Getty Images

“GAP, FRANCE – JULY 16: The peloton make their way towards Gap during stage 14 of the 93rd Tour de France July 16, 2006 from Montelimar to Gap”
Bryn Lennon/Getty Images
Q&A
Have you ever had an accident when you took pictures during a cycling competition like Tour de France?
This is only my second Tour de France and I’m pleased to say I haven’t had any accidents…yet! Amazingly, there are very few accidents involving photographers during this race – it’s mainly more police motorbikes which tend to have a few prangs. It’s all down to skill at the end of the day and we employ very good drivers to ensure we’re as safe as we can be. Sunday was a bit of an eventful day…check out this aftermath photo resulting from a collision between two riders
What kind of stuff are you using for picture transfering during the race? PocketPC? Or do you stop somewhere and transfer it by laptop via email? tnx for answering
This answer varies according to if I’m on the bike of not. If I am on the bike, then there’s no way we can send pictures throughout the day – it’s just too busy and we have to keep up with the riders to capture everything. I wait until each stage has finished for the day and use a 3G card (or GPRS signal) and laptop to send the images and captions. If I’m not on the bike, I use the Press Centre, which has ADSL lines.
Tags: photos, Tour de France


July 20th, 2006 at 1:22 pm
Hi, thank you very much for the pictures and for the answers of our questions.
How many pictures do you usually take in 1 day at Tour de France? I imagine that you have a lot of CF cards, isn’t it?
Another question is: if you use the 400mm 2.8 on the finish line, who bring this lens to the finish line? I think that you don’t bring a 400mm 2.8 on motorbike.
Thank you