Bradley Wiggins

Stage 8 – Thousand Oaks

Stage 8, taking place in Thousand Oaks, featured three loops of the infamous Rock Store climb and finished with a few laps around the downtown Westlake area of the city.

Early on, a break led by the massively popular Jens Voigt and Niki Terpstra opened almost a four-minute lead on the peloton, but slowly was reeled in. Mark Cavendish, who seemed to be struggling on the climbs early on, behind even the peloton, was able to close the gap on the descent. With an impressive effort in the closing kilometers of the race, Cavendish bridged the peloton, which subsequently bridged a minor breakaway, and the best sprinter in the world was able to cross the finish line first once again.

Amusingly, he said in a post-race interview he wasn’t even planning on starting. Even after changing his mind, Cavendish claimed he was going to take it easy and ate french toast for breakfast. New pre-ride morning fuel, anyone?

This stage was really fun to attend, and had an awesome atmosphere at the top. After the 2nd climb I walked all the way down to my car, caught some pictures of the peloton at the foot of the hill, and drove as quickly as a could to downtown Thousand Oaks. I then got lost, turned around, and made it with seconds to spare as the first of the final few laps on the city circuit began.

Stage 7 – Santa Clarita to Pasadena

Stage 7 started in Santa Clarita and finished with a three-mile loop in downtown Pasadena, passing the City Hall and Colorado Boulevard (of Rose Bowl Parade fame).

I thought that shooting some photos downtown would be cool because I’d get to see 3 laps of riding at least, and since it would most likely be a bunch sprint, I’d probably see the Cannondale, OPQS, and Giant-Shimano trains setting up their sprinters. However, due to the speed these guys were going, and sidewalks being packed with spectators, it was a challenge to capture some quality shots.

On the plus side, I ran into the beautiful “golden hour” Low that was featured in http://trackosaurusrex.com/golden-hour-low/. Patrick was kind enough to let me take a few shots, but check out the Tracko feature to see justice done to the bike.

Stage 6 – Santa Clarita to Mountain High

The sixth stage was a mountain-top finish. The brutal 14km final climb took place on the roads of Mountain High, a Southern California ski resort. No luck for a bunch sprint today.

The main talking point of this stage was whether Bradley Wiggins would lose any time to Rohan Dennis, who had outclimbed Bradley on Stage 3 during the closing kilometers of the race.

Because the riders had to head back down the mountain after race, I was able to get some cool shots of them coming back the other way.

 

 

 

Let’s get started

Greetings cycling enthusiasts! The aim of this blog is modest: take some pictures of people racing bicycles, and hope they turn out for the best. I am new to photography, and hope that my talent for shooting can at some point catch up to my passion for the sport.

I thought that the best way to get this site kicked off was to get some photos of the 2014 Amgen Tour of California. With some heavy hitters like Bradley Wiggins, Peter Sagan, Mark Cavendish, and many more supremely talented riders, I was super excited by this years TOC. So I drove to Stages 6, 7, 8, hiked all the way up the Rockstore climb, and tried to capture some moments.

I would love feedback and criticism on all fronts. I threw together the format of the blog quickly so I could get the pictures up ASAP. I aim to refine the actually layout of site later, but for right now I’d like to present the raw content. The next few posts will be a small selection of the photos I took. If you happen to enjoy a picture, please feel free to share it as long as you credit Best Coast Velo.

Welcome, and thanks for visiting!