Photographing the Tour de France in Yorkshire: Lessons from the Road
By Mike McNamee
Originally published following the 2014 Tour de France Grand Départ in Yorkshire.
We stay with the wheeled sport theme, moving on to the Tour de France. The McNamees spent some time in the Lake District, testing bags, lenses and tripods before moving over to Ilkley to take in the Tour.
Yorkshire, it has to be said, had taken the whole thing to its heart; Ilkley was painted yellow and everywhere we went there were huge crowds and a fabulous party atmosphere.
Any naysayers peddling the “it’s all a waste of money” line could reflect on long stretches of roads free from potholes and long stretches of supermarket shelves stripped bare – the local ASDA reportedly did £40,000 extra business in a single day.
Estimates varied, but one contemporary report claimed 2.5 million people turned out across Yorkshire, with 60,000 on Holme Moss alone. So many people turned out that the Tour was brought to a standstill at one stage; you could just see the double white lines up the centre of the road but not enough for a peloton.
Photographically, this is a tough shoot.
Finding a Position
The uphill sections are slow-moving but the crowds are massive and unruly; the downhill sections are less populated but, at one of our patches, the riders came by at just on 50mph, some 3,000 metres from the finish in Harrogate.
In terms of getting a good sight-line of the riders, the outskirts of a busy town seem good. We had plenty of room some 50 yards from the last house in Ilkley and had only the motorcycle outriders to worry about.
In terms of picking out a particular cyclist, the chances are remote.
We got a shot of Chris Froome but only realised it when reviewing the frames later.
Capturing the Peloton
The Lotto Belisol team provides a good illustration of how dramatically the character of the race changes.
The riders appear relatively relaxed on the slower sections, compared with the high-speed descent past Silsden Reservoir, but particularly with the final section, around 3,000 metres from the finish, when the lead-out trains were forming up in excess of 50mph.
At those speeds, there is very little time to react.
The local constabulary joined in the fun with a very realistic Yorkshire Terrier snapping at the passing tourists!
The peloton speeds out of Ilkley; the pavements are quiet but the outrider is about to obliterate a head-on shot. We did manage to get Froome, escorted by Richie Porte.
When You Have No Time to Hesitate
In the next article, Damian warns against gunning the motor drive, but in this instance you have no other option.
Once the riders have come level with you, blink and it’s all over.
The experience demonstrated just how difficult photographing professional cycling can be. You have to contend with crowds, rapidly changing distances, high speeds, safety considerations and the sheer difficulty of picking a particular rider out of a moving peloton.
Sometimes the best photograph isn’t necessarily the one you planned. In our case, we only discovered that we had captured Chris Froome when we reviewed the frames afterwards.
The reception that the Tour received in Yorkshire showed just how enthusiastically the event had been embraced by the region.
Archive note: This article records the 2014 Tour de France Grand Départ in Yorkshire and retains contemporary references and observations from the original publication.
