Pedal power

Wendy Evans breaks out the lycra and gets on her bike for some racing photography

Whether you’re photographing the Tour de Yorkshire or Sunday morning riders whizzing around your local country lanes, cycle races can o er thrills and spills that are more accessible to the average photographer than, for example, motorsport. Indoor events are usually circuit races, as riders go round a track, while those outside are predominantly road races on public highways (see www.britishcycling.org.uk/road).

Road races are likely to be more accessible than an indoor circuit race and by investigating the route beforehand, you can ‡nd the best spots for photography. What you’re looking for here is a decent curve so that even if you only have one racer in view, there is a pleasing composition with the road curving away behind the cyclist. If the leader has a chasing pack, often known as the peleton, then that’s even better, as you’ll have them all lined up too.

Position yourself so that you are at an angle to the road, with lead-in lines, the cyclist at the front and some room in front of them when you take the photo. A focal length of 70-150mm should be ideal for this kind of approach. Something like an aperture of f/4 should produce enough depth of ‡eld, without slowing the shutter speed down. You’ll want to freeze the action, so somewhere around 1/640 sec is ideal. The alternative to this is when there is a group of riders together, like at the start or ‡nish, and you want to capture the immediate action. In this situation, a wide-angle lens of around 28mm should get most of the action in without distorting the scene too much.

Road racers aren’t moving as fast as cars, but tending to average 25-28mph they aren’t hanging about either. A focus tracking mode is helpful, picking up cyclists as they approach, but it isn’t essential. It’s more important to shoot a batch of frames as riders hit the ideal location, so you have a selection of photos.