DropBarFan

Perhaps he didn't want to risk slipping the chain by downshifting fd on the pavé, at any rate it shows his strength. The whole deal was a blast from seeing the incredible talent to mingling with Bike Fans O'The World. I wish DC local media had done a bit to publicize Richmond2015. Sure, bike racing rarely makes the evening sports report but they might have been interested in a big int'l event happening close by.

If anybody has some more good photos I'd like to see 'em. Never thought about borrowing a friend's nice SLR camera but since rain was predicted I probably wouldn't have done so anyway. My action shots were mostly mediocre but I might post some pics of the fans etc. My favorite bunch were the Belgian group that stationed themselves next to the fan zone on 23rd St (next to the beer supply of course!). They had full uniforms; an American fan asked them for a group pic & they happily obliged & even broke out into a lilting song. Is there an official Belgian bike fan song? On TV coverage I learned that Belgium has the historical lead in Worlds wins.

hokie cycler

I think the first 7 to 10 riders on the last lap were in the big ring. It just goes to show how incredible these guys are in that they could do this after 162 miles of racing.

WCroadie

You'd be surprised what you can climb in the big ring when racing, but I doubt I could get up that hill with any speed in the big ring. The difference between some of the guys I raced in local P/1/2/3 races and domestic pros is huge, the difference between domestic pro and the Pro Tour Teams is huge as well, those top level guys are insane.

spec84

Sagan is probably the strongest guy out there short of maybe Greipel. Andre Greipel is a beast! I think the only thing that has ever hindered Greipel would be his weight, but he's all muscle. When he's in the right place at the right time, he can pull away from the top sprinters in the world.

WCroadie

Agreed, and seeing him up close in person is astonishing, he is all muscle and an absolute monster.

Dan333SP

Here's an album with basically everything from the week on my memory card dumped into it, so there are shots from the TTT, some group rides I was on, the men's and women's ITTs, U23 race, women's race, and men's race. Taken with a couple of different small point and shoot Canons that I have. I haven't really screened any of them, so a lot are utter crap/out of focus/blurry, but some are decent. A few of you guys can probably find yourselves in the crowds. Eventually I'll take the time to weed out the bad photos and maybe do some photoshop massaging on the good ones to make them better, but there's only so much you can do with a tiny camera.

Worlds 2015 by dan333sp | Photobucket


@hokie cycler @WCroadie @seypat @WillWeaverRVA @spec84 @PepeM @eventserivces @Steve530 @wvridgerider

WillWeaverRVA

Unfortunately I wasn't able to make it out as much as I wanted to, so what I have is pretty much all I have. I did get quite a few good shots, though.

Here's the link to my Flickr album again:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/corede...57656611666383

DropBarFan

Thanks, very nice photos considering from point 'n shoot camera. My Fuji compact has some manual settings but I'm too lazy to learn 'em. For me it was easier to take action pics w/old film cams vs digitals w/vast # of settings & tiny icons. For spectators that want to get seen on TV or cam shots one should wear something really distinctive (not a black t-shirt LOL).

DropBarFan

Some great pics, thanks! In olden days before pro racers wore helmets/shades it was much easier to spot various riders during a race, now it helps to have the photos to 'see what ya' saw'. Kinda surprising to see many of the racers (even Russians) wearing long-sleeve jerseys & tights for warmup or training. Despite temps being fairly comfortable I guess it's the smart thing to keep warm & supple. OTOH in olden days races I think there was a macho rule against wearing tights during a race--here's Hinault on the way to 1980 solo victory in Ličge-Bastogne-Ličge during snowstorm:

Dan333SP

Thanks. Mine are a little Cannon S110 and SX260 for more zoom, so both have full manual controls, but I obviously fail to do much with them and end up in auto a lot of the time. A bunch of photos from the women's race and time trial involved me playing with the shutter speed trying to get blur, but they ended up just out of focus and overexposed. 1 in every 10 actually looks something like what I intended. Good thing memory cards are cheap. This is about as close as I came to getting what I intended, and even that needs a lot of help-

WCroadie

Good photos, Dan!

Here are all the pics I took of the Men's RR, haven't removed the crappy ones yet. I have some U23 and women's if anyone is interested
https://goo.gl/photos/XjMt3HfWJzXxSwi69

PepeM

Some cracking images there.

DropBarFan

I'm good at getting blur except it's the riders who get blurred, heh. I did a little video which turned out to be slo-mo, that's exciting. The elite riders scoot up the hills pretty fast despite the steep pitch as long as riders in front didn't fumble. I had thought that some of the riders might run up half the hill if they got slowed down by another rider & had to stop but that didn't happen too much, would have been hard to run at ~10 mph they were riding up the pavé,

DropBarFan

Thanks, great photos! Wow, in Worlds ya' rarely see the racers coasting along & chatting, it's grueling just to keep up with the pack. U23 & Womens' Elite was the only other races I saw besides Mens' Elite so I'd be interested to see.

BTW how did folks like the US TV coverage? IMO it seemed OK, maybe a touch casual & chatty in parts vs sticking to actual proceedings. I liked the on-course PA announcing & jumbotron video but in the quieter parts of course w/o PA speakers it would have been nice if the streaming video had worked.

WCroadie

Thanks. You could hear/see the pro's talking casually while corning at like 40+mph, those guys are insane.

The coverage was mediocre. I much prefer the eurosport announcers over nbcsports/universal guys, I believe they did not send the TV crews over from Europe, even the Eurosport coverage was the nbcsports cameras feed.

WCroadie

Watch the highlights and listen to the Eurosport announcers, they are so much better than NBCSports. I can watch that finish over and over...

DropBarFan

Good video of the final Sagan attack. Amazing that he went into a "super-tuck" right after last Libby Hill.

hokie cycler

He was still pedaling in the super tuck. I would love to know how fast he took the corner onto 18th Street. Mad descending skills.

hokie cycler

Nice two page photo of Libbie Hill in the December issue of VeloNews.

DropBarFan

I'm still reminiscing about the races, thanx! Local weather warm this weekend & felt pretty good over the hills, "Yeah, I'm Peter Sagan!", LOL. Any track fans heading to London for UCI Track Worlds in March?

redcon1

Great pictures, thanks to all who posted. Great memories of the event.

So we are heading down t RVA for our annual family GTG after Christmas. Seriously considering bringing the roadbike along and attacking Libby Hill and 23rd Street climbs, haha.
Will probably bring the 29er though, and do some riding on the island accessed by the footbridge. A guy in the RVA booth at Libby Hill was telling me a about a MTB area along the river near the trash dump also.

Dan333SP

There are TONS of MTB trails around here. I only have a road bike, but most of my friends do both and rave about Buttermilk, North Bank, Belle Isle, ect. The James River Park System (JRPS) has a lot of trails in it, do a search and you can pull up some maps.

I'm reminiscing about Worlds as well, I really need to get into Barnes & Noble to buy up some of the Euro cycling mags with coverage of that week to keep somewhere special.

DropBarFan

Didn't get a chance to ride up the cobbles but I'd guess not super-difficult assuming no traffic. Was fun to see all the diff spectator bikes, a surprising # of folders in attendance.

hokie cycler

Libby Hill is not difficult, it's bumpy and trying to ride the gutter is difficult as it is very narrow.

23rd Street is a beast. It's short and with the cross street you have to stop at the bottom so you start it from a dead stop which makes it harder. You can get wheel slip if you stand and have your weight too far forward.

DropBarFan

Heh, Governor Hill had me panting a bit 'cause I'm so out of shape. BTW I see that the Richmond youth hostel is now open. I have the idea to drive halfway-down from DC to Richmond & do a weekend tour, in part to scout out routes for possible eventual DC-Richmond & back ride.