Tour de France, stage 3, Verviers – Longwy, 212.5km
The morning of stage 3 started off like any other — a hurried discussion in the car on the way to the start about what kind of stage it was, what features lay ahead, what kind of shots we would get. Jim made some offhand mention of the route passing through a Formula 1 circuit in Spa-Francorchamps. I retorted something like, “Most likely we’re not going through the actual track but circumnavigating it.” How many times had we been on the Tour, Giro, or Vuelta and come oh-so-close to a castle or a lake and seen the route veer just shy of being picture-worthy?
We arrived at the start without agreement, without an actual plan. Luckily, we’re pretty good about checking in with our colleagues on a daily basis. In the start town of Verviers we held court with fellow photographers. The consensus was “the track, of course, the track — leave before and shoot on the track!”
So, there it was. Everyone seemed to know about the track. Decision made.
I was not totally sold on this magic, iconic, historic location. The road book made no specific mention of leaving city streets and entering a car race course. And unlike the Giro d’Italia, the Tour does not provide a supplement to the book with specific highlights of cultural and pastoral importance. We do a fair amount of guesswork using previous experience, Google street views, and general asking around each day. For example, recent retiree and legendary photographer, Graham Watson, tweeted a photo yesterday from over a decade ago, showcasing a valley gorge the race would pass through late in the route. He mused “Don’t tell the Tour’s photographers, but today’s @LeTour stage goes through La Roque Gagneac on the banks of the Dordogne – shhh…!” That kind of intel is priceless.
So, back to stage 3. We left Verviers en route to the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. We rounded a bend and passed under the famed marquée, and I see we were in fact now driving our little press car on the race track. Wanting to show off the location more than the race action itself was now the challenge. For that, you needed some perspective and height. Jim drove up the track a bit and staged himself at the steepest part of the curve. I paired up with our Belgian colleague, Kristof Ramon, who knew the track well having covered the cyclocross event that is held there.
From the looks of it, all the “control towers” and press boxes were unmanned. Most of the VIP balconies were vacant. There were a few spots to get up higher along the edge of the cluster of buildings. As Kristof and I ran up and down steel staircases and tried locked doors, we were nearly at the point of giving up. Our last try was the exterior entrance to the press room. Hot, sweaty, and out of breath we tried the handle. It turned. We rushed across the empty room and out onto the balcony. Kristof hid in the shadows so all the other photographers wouldn’t see us and climb up there. The race was near and we nodded to each other, yes, the shot is good.
And afterward, Jim got to say, “I told you so.”
Key image specs:
Canon 1DX
Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM
1/640 sec @ f/5.0 ISO 160
Focal Length: 135mm
File format: RAW
The post The Shot: Tour de France goes Formula 1 appeared first on VeloNews.com.