2017 Giro d’Italia: Stage 17, Tirano-Canazei 219km — The art of the scrum
In a typical grand tour, you have 21 race days to get it right. And you have 21 race days to get it wrong. The riders have good days and they have bad days — missed moments for a break or attack, poor race strategy, normal misfortune, fatigue, injury. As photographers, we also have good days and bad days.
Stage 17 from Tirano to Canazei was not a great day. The stage was too complicated for much access before the finish. We missed the start while finishing work from the queen stage before. A colleague ran over a cat on the course. There was general malaise on the finish line as mass fatigue from nearly three weeks on the road.
There are a few ways to judge if a day is good or not. How many good photos did we get? How many pivotal race moments did we catch? How many clients have we served faithfully? How well did we represent the stage? We also have personal measurements: individual expectations, knowing what we could have captured and didn’t, stylistic preferences. And we have all the daily obstacles: roadblocks, fatigue, technical issues with cameras, unpredictable spectators, bad positioning, uncontrollable chaos on the finish line.
We all wanted spectacular finish shots to round out an otherwise mediocre day. As the race finale approached, Pierre Rolland made his last of many attacks from the breakaway group. Without a WorldTour win in years, the bloke was on fire, grit in his teeth. If he made it to the line solo, it would be glorious. So everyone was jockeying for position at the finish. Each photographer, TV broadcaster, journalist, and member of team staff was waiting with bated breath and holding their spots.
Pierre rolled in. It was a quiet hush before the roar. He wept on his soigneur’s shoulder as the rank and file closed in, incidentally making the “circle” of space available for the official RAI TV cameraman. (He later confided that his own shots were messed up because of the whirlpool of people rushing in.) Pierre looked up for a split second before flinging his bike above his head in grand gesture. Photographers swarmed and got in each others’ way. Elbows and camera flashes and tops of heads all crammed into each other’s frames. It was nearly impossible to get good clean shots. In the end, everyone came away with something, good or bad or in between. Hopefully you didn’t walk away with an elbow in the nose or an earful from a colleague. Stage 17 was a mixed day. It wasn’t perfect but it was cycling.
Life in the scrum is definitely an art form.
Key image specs:
Canon 1DX
Canon 24-700mm 2.8L II USM
1/1000 sec @ f/2.8 ISO 160
Focal Length: 24mm
File format: RAW
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