Tour de France 2010: Team Presentation Part II

Team Presentation: Thursday, July 1st
Caisse d'Epargne (Spain) was the next team.
161 Luis Leon Sanchez, 162 Rui Costa (POR), 163 Imanol Erviti, 164 Ivan Gutierres, 165 Vasil Kiryienka (BLR), 166 Christophe Moreau (FRA), 167 Mathieu Perget (FRA), 168 Ruben Plaze and 169 Jose Joaquin Rojas.



I think it is Ruben Plaza doing the trick on his bike to entertain the audience. I saw riders doing their best NOT to be bored by the lackluster presentation and/or NOT to make the audience fall asleep by doing something like this. I don't know if Dave Zabriskie's performance was on the air. He was really fidgety.




Quick Step (Belgium) came on.
131 Sylvain Chavanel (FRA), 132 Carlos Barredo (ESP), 133 Kevin De Weert, 134 Dries Devenyns, 135 Jérôme Pineau (FRA), 136 Francesco Reda (ITA), 137 Kevin Seeldrayers, 138 Jurgen Van de Walle and 139 Maarten Wynants.



Euskaltel Euskadi (Spain) followed.
181 Samuel Sanchez, 182 Iñaki Isasi Flores, 183 Egoi Martinez, 184 Juan Jose Oroz, 185 Alan Pérez, 186 Ruben Pérez, 187 Amets Txurruka, 188 Ivan Velasco and 199 Gorka Verdugo.






Iñaki Isasi is here.



Samuel Sanchez was the one who had to say something.

Tour de France 2010: Team Presentation Part I

Team Presentation: Thursday, July 1st
This presentation, in my opinion, really sucked. More waiting time and less presentation of any kind. What were the TV producers thinking? I admired the multi-language ability of the MC's but completely wasted because of the format.

The following pictures were taken by me (copyright notice) and the movie was also shot by me.

I was on a second row and there was a really tall Dutch guy (2 meters at least, no exaggeration) in front of me. I beat him by using my trusting mini step ladder, whose very usefulness I learned from my master (who also introduced me to a radio scanner, among others). And it shows. I could shoot pictures without any obstructions.

By the time the team presentation, or what was meant to be so, started, the place was packed. I had the bird's view here.



The first team was Team HTC-Columbia, followed by FDJ, Footon-Servetto, Lampre-Farmese Vini, Caisse D'Epargne, Quick Step, Euskaltel-Euskadi, AG2R-La Mondiale, Team Katusha, Omega Pharma-Lotto, Cervelo Test Team, Liquigas-Doimo, BBox Bouygues Telecom, Team Milram, Garmin-Transitions, BMC Racing Team, Rabobank, Cofidis, Sky Cycling Team, Team Radioshack, Team Saxo Bank and Astana.

Here is Team HTC-Columbia (USA) with 118 Michael Rogers (AUS), 111 Mark Cavendish (GBR), 112 Bernhard Eisel (AUT), 113 Bert Grabsch (GER), 114 Adam Hansen (AUS), 115 Tony Martin (GER), 116 Maxime Monfort (BEL), 117 Mark Renshaw (AUS) and 119 Kanstantsin Sivtsov (BLR).



La Française Des Jeux (France) with 62 Sandy Casar, 63 Rémy Di Gregorio, 64 Anthony Geslin, 65 Matthieu Ladagnous, 61 Christophe Le Mével, 66 Anthony Roux, 67 Jérémy Roy, 68 Wesley Sulzberger (AUS), 69 Benoît Vaugrenard.



Footon-Servette (ESP) was presented with;
211 Eros Capecchi (ITA), 212 Jose Alberto Benitez, 213 Manuel Cardodo (POR), 214 Arkaitz Duran, 215 Markus Eibegger (AUT), 216 Fabio Felline (ITA), 217 Iban Mayoz, 218 Aitor Pérez and 219 Rafael Valls.



I am sorry to say that I did not recognize most of them.

Lampre-Farnese Vini (ITA) consisted with 201 Damiano Cunego, 202 Grega Bole (SLO), 203 Maruo Da Dalto, 204 Francesco Gavazzi, 205 Danilo Hondo (GER), 206 Mirco Lorenzetto, 207 Adriano Malori, 208 Alessandro Petacchi, 209 Simon Spilak (SLO). I did not know Danilo Hondo too well. Of course I knew of him at that time when he was with Team Gerolsteiner. He proved to be very friendly guy when he came to us on Champs Elysee to give out his autograph.



Here Alessandro is being interviewed.

Tour de Suisse Part I

This is a movie shot by me with my Nikon D90.
Converted to M4V to be smaller.

When Andy got off his bike to be dressed up for the race, he gives his headset to his brother Frank.


This is also experimental. I am experimenting with movies. Hope it works.

Tour de Luxembourg final podium

This is a test posting.

Paris-Nice 2010 Part I

It has been a long time since I made an entry here. I know for sure nobody visited since then.

I have been to Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne 2010 and Paris-Nice2010 Prologue so far this year.

I post some pictures that I took at these events. Lately I bought Nikon D90, a digital reflex camera. It is good. It has 18mm-200mm zoom lens on it.



I arrived in Monfort-L'Amaury around 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, 7th. I took a walk and found these men setting up the start ramp.


This is a picture of the "Village" placed right next to the Team Parking. They are here to entertain the children. There was a Merry-go-round in the center which was powered by volunteering parents (I guess).


This is how this device is devised. The parents (or anyone who volunteers) have to pedal to make it go round.

continued...

TdF photos Part II (Verbier, Switzerland)

Part II from photos from TdF 2009
This is the entrance of the hotel. "Welcome." How nice!


Just a short walk away from the hotel, there was a helicopter (model converted from a real one, I guess).


As you can see, 500 meters from the finish. The police officers are not concerned with the woman who is painting on the road. Usually in Switzerland, painting on the road is forbidden.


Looking up from the place where I took the picture above, I can see the devoted fans of Amets Txurruka displaying their banner proudly.


About 1km from the finish, there was this display on the wall of the tight corner. Entertaining! If you take a close look at it, you can amuse yourself even more.


Oops! There goes a crash! Ouch!


Ouch!


There is a chicken crossing the road. The man seems to be very annoyed but why?


What is this? Is this part of the display or someone added it later? A syringe is sticking out of his leg.


Steve Schleck came by on his bike.

I am online now so will start updating

I admit I have been lazy. I am online now. I decided to pay to have internet access at home. I can stay online as long as I want.

So it it time to start updating this blog as frequently as possible. I will start posting photos that I made during this (almost past) season.

Looking at the photos I took, I deeply think that I need a better camera, like Cannon Eos 450 or Nikon D90 or something. My photos are sh*t. I will buy a better camera within my budget.

To start with, I will start posting pictures from Tour de France 2009. Here are some.

Verbier, Switzerland
Verbier, I was there.


Just a local view.


This is the hotel where Team Saxobank guys were staying.


At the foot of those flags (Luxemboug / Schleck fan club), there was Steve, the elder brother of the Schleck clans.


Here is someone that I don't particularly like but ...