Sunday, June 24, 2007

Lance Armstrong's record 6th TDF victory!


This shot was the culmination of my travels to France. I followed the Tour de France over a period of about three days but didn't really feel like I had come away with anything usable during that time. I knew that the last day, when they do eight laps around the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Elysees, I would have eight opportunities to capture Lance as he rode past in the peloton, one roll per lap.
I showed up at 4am and walked around the Champs Elysees in the dark and cold trying to figure out where I could get the best shot, where I was allowed to shoot and to assure that I would be in a spot where a ticket would not be necessary! I finally found a perfect front-row spot and had the approval of three security people to set up the camera and shoot...but around 2pm, the gendarme came around asking for tickets! Thankfully, in the 10 hours I had been there, I made lots of friends and there was a wonderful couple--Dick and Ann from Albuquerque, New Mexico, who helped me out and finagled me a ticket to show the gendarme! To this day, Dick and Ann are good friends....they saved my Tour de France shot!
Interestingly, was actually able to meet with Lance Armstrong this last year and show him this image. When he looked at the print he said, "This isn't real. This can't be real...this isn't real!"
I assured him that it was, most definitely real...I gave him a copy of the image and he signed a copy for me.

This is absolutely one of my favorite shots.

6 comments:

Julie Hibbard said...

Welcome to the wonderful world of blogging!
The site is BEAUTIFUL! Good job.
Oh what fun you are going to have!
Congratulations!

charlie said...

Very cool photo! Are you the same photographer who makes the 8-foot long NASCAR posters? How can I get one?

PETE Di LALLO said...

way to go Rick...Julie and Allison drove me nuts too until I had a blog; and you know what? it's mostly fun until you try to write one...when I find out how to post pictures mine should improve...
easy for you to show us all the fine work you've done...start posting!!!
obviously Charlie is already a big fan...I'm looking for an 8 ft long Stanley Cup banner..got one?

Brent said...

That's an awesome photo, and the blog layout looks great.

You should add a link to your website though.

Matt Jensen said...

You get a full sence of the race in the motion captured in the photo. Looks great!

gj5747 said...

Very interesting article! Someone can be useful!
modafinil-pharmacy