POSTNORD TOUR DENMARK
A bicycle race rated just beneath the grand tours. I took my images on Kiddesvej. This street is famous for going up with 18 per cent for more than 500 meters.
What Makes Kiddesvej a Unique Cycling Challenge?
When photographing a cycling race, you have to stand the right place. I once stood near the finish area during a Tour de France stage in the south of France. The route was quite flat, and it happened that all the riders came together to the finish, and it was all over in a few seconds. I haven’t used a single one of those pictures – some were bad, the rest were blurry. I’ve been to several Tour de France stages since, but they have been mountain stages. Here the riders come at a slower speed for a longer period of time, and you can better feel their suffering in the pictures.
The same applies to Kiddesvej in Vejle city (vej ~ street). It is a section where the route rises 18% over a distance of 500 meters. Of course, this is not a big problem for well-trained riders, but when, before you get to Vejle, you have cycled almost 200 kilometers at high speed and then have to ride a circular route 5 times, which includes Kiddesvej, then problems arise. The sheep are separated from the goats. That’s what the Danish riders can do. The highest point in Denmark is about 170 meters above sea level, so when Danish riders train, it goes up and down a lot, and on top of that, there is often strong wind here. That’s something that pulls teeth.
PostNord Denmark Tour (link in Danish) is a stage race that ranks just below the grand tour races, and every year we see many of the best riders from all over the world participate. Every year, Kiddesvej is included in the stage, that has been chosen to end in Vejle. In Denmark, we have a lot of good riders who do well in the big races, so it’s not just to satisfy the many spectators that the Danish riders do well on this stage.
When you are going to photograph a cycling race, it’s good to arrive well in time, so that you can choose a good place to photograph from. Until the riders arrive, you have plenty of time to photograph the spectators around you and prepare for the moment when the first riders arrive. Then the party begins. If you are the lucky owner of 2 cameras, I would suggest you have a wide angle to normal zoom on one and a telephoto zoom on the other- Then you are really good to go. You have made the settings in advance, so you can concentrate on the pictures and not have to change lenses along the way, and you also avoid getting dust on the sensor.
So good luck/wind, so to speak.
Speaking of wind – try a gallery from a kite festival