Tour de France / Epic Battle / Epic Photos

I was glued to my laptop this morning as Andy Schleck prepared to crush Alberto Contador in the climb up the legendary Tourmalet. I have to admit I think Contador is a total ass. Dropping Schleck in stage 15, then doing his stupid little "pistolero" thing on the podium afterwards was sooooooo uncool.

Anyway, it was an epic battle up the hill, with Contador stuck like a leech on Schleck's wheel. The fog was thick and there were crazy naked Euros all over the road as the two slugged it out. I wanted to be there, shooting pictures of the whole scene, which if Schleck had pulled away, would have been one of the best victories in cycling ever.

Regardless of the giant black smudge on Contador's yellow jersey, pics from this day will go down in the cycling photo history books as some of the great ones.

I snapped some pics of the monitor with my iphone. The motion blur and crappy resolution coupled with the fog make them sort of beautiful. Maybe I'll print these huge and sell them for millions ala Richard Prince:
Here is the one (yes, literally one) pic I shot during my visit to the Tour in 2004. A composite of Lance Armstrong passing Ivan Basso on the Alpe D'Huez. That year it was a time trial, and I spent all day sitting on a hillside overlooking the last switchback into the finish, shooting frames on my Hassy. This is made up of about 12 pieces of film, from throughout the day:


Which makes me think of Brent Humphrey's epic project from last year, Le Tour, which is a must see for anyone that loves cycling and photography.

Saturday is Schleck's last chance to catch Contador, he needs to make up 9 seconds to win. I'll be pulling for him to crush the Pistolero...