[Leica] IMG: La Vuelta a España 2023

[Nathan Wajsman]

But this is precisely why I go to see the race in the mountains where you get to see the action for far longer than a few seconds. Last year I went to the small town of Tibi, also at the top of a hard climb. The time between the leading cyclist and the last one was something like 45 minutes. Yesterday it was less, but still 15-20 minutes. There is no real peloton at this point in a stage, rather several groups of varying sizes. And as you can see in my photos, if you pick a point where they are going uphill, then the speed is such that you can easily capture their expressions etc. What I like about cycling (besides the fact that I do it myself) is that you can get closer to the action than in any other sport (sometimes too close, as we have seen on a few occasions recently). And it is free.

Yesterday, I arrived at my chosen spot, this particular bar where I always stop for a drink when I am climbing the Carrasqueta mountain pass, about 1.5 hours before the race arrived there. This meant that I had no trouble parking my car, and knowing that I would have to wait, I brought a book with me and just sat and read at a picnic table while enjoying a couple of beers. Hardly a hardship :-)

Cheers,
Nathan

Nathan Wajsman
photo at frozenlight.eu

http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
http://www.greatpix.eu
http://www.frozenlight.eu

Слава Україні! Героям слава!






> On 3 Sep 2023, at 04:28, Jayanand Govindaraj via LUG <lug at leica-users.org> wrote:
> 
> I cannot fathom, for the life of me, why people brave the conditions for
> hours to watch a bunch of cyclists in colourful clothes whizzing past for a
> few seconds. It makes watching a cricket match for 6 hours a day, for 5
> days, with no winner at the end of it, very rational in comparison. 🤓
> 
> Cheers
> Jayanand
> 
> On Sun, Sep 3, 2023 at 1:20 AM Nathan Wajsman <photo at frozenlight.eu> wrote:
> 
>> There are 3 grand tours in professional cycling—the Giro d’Italia in the
>> spring, the Tour de France in July, and the Vuelta a España in
>> August/September.  Today, the 8th stage of the Vuelta passed through what I
>> call “my playground”, the mountains in the interior of Alicante province.
>> As usual, I picked a spot to watch the race that would allow for good photo
>> opportunities: going uphill (meaning relatively slow speed) and late in the
>> stage, so that the peloton would be broken up into several groups. I drove
>> to a bar 6 km from the penultimate mountain pass of the stage, a place
>> which I visit on two wheels myself, and things worked out great. I had a
>> nice vantage point and took a lot of photos. These are the initial serving
>> that I particularly liked:
>> 
>> https://www.greatpix.eu/Vuelta-a-Espa%C3%B1a-2023/
>> 
>> Tomorrow, I will climb the Carrasqueta on bicycle (unless it is
>> raining—cycling uphill on wet roads is OK but descending on wet curvy roads
>> is not OK).
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> Nathan
>> 
>> Nathan Wajsman
>> photo at frozenlight.eu
>> 
>> http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
>> http://www.greatpix.eu
>> http://www.frozenlight.eu
>> 
>> Слава Україні! Героям слава!
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
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> 
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