Flanders - Race Photos

Raam

We staked ourselves out on the Koppenberg.


The riders come from here


And go up here


Riding across this stuff


And, in specific, this bit right in front of me


The TV cameras were out


So were the photographers. This guy had claimed this tree for himself.


I spied this pair walking through the field. Spare wheels for Team Sky.




Lots of Flanders flags around


Lots of people too


Tree people


Some bikes for Cancellara and Breschel


The photographer gains some friends

Raam

Neutral Service


A rider appears




It's Skil Shimano!


He's followed by Caisse dePagne and Vascon Soleil


Our tanned friend is working hard.


Katusha arrive with their odd Lazer aero covers


And off the break goes


What's this? Everyone looks excited. Which rider could possibly cause such excitement, in Belgium, on the Koppenberg?


Breschel knows who it is


Yes, you guessed it: BOONEN! Breshel looks comfortable.

That girl seems pretty happy to see him. So does her boyfriend on the right. Man crush.

Definitely a man crush.


Is that Nuyens or Boom?


A cobbles bike on cobbles! Go, Gilbert. Flecha looks on.

Raam

It's hard to miss George, but I did, and only saw him when I looked back through my photos. That's Cancellara's butt.


There goes Leif Hoste. \o/


It's definitely not easy.


Ballan's head.


Skinny!


Cervelo and Quickstep.


Now there is hard effort. My personal favourite.


Chavanel.


Radioshack. The gear is minging in real life too.


More Quickstep.


Cav approaches.


He doesn't stop for a chat no matter how much I scream his name.


You can see a BBox rider had dismounted


He jumps back on with ease.


And pedals away.

Raam

Garmin


The German Road Champion.


Looks like Greg Henderson.


This rider looks a bit cooked.


More odd Lazer helmet thing.


Popovych, I think.


The Portugese road champion had ran for a bit.


He got back on no problem.


A bit of Rabbobank action.


This guy looked to be totally zoned out.


Nice tan.


Cancellara's and Breschel's bikes head off.



Awful overshoes.


And just like that, they were all gone. Everyone started to walk back up the road. The Koppenberg was wedged, and it was a slow plod back up.

Then a shout goes out, and the crowd of people parted. A dropped rider was making his way through. He got a good cheer from the crowd.


There are tonnes more here, some good, some bad. Those were just a selection.

sy

Some great shots Raam. Up close and personal! Loved the shots of Breschel and Boonen, also Chavanel and Millar. Thanks