Photo of the day - 7: Catching up with sports photographer, Pauline Ballet

I first met cycling Pauline Ballet in March of this year when I was writing for a project on inspirational women in cycling. She was one of the 31 women featured. As with practically all meetings at that time we chatted via Zoom from our homes (She's in Paris, while I'm in London). She was buzzing as she'd just got back from photographing the Strade Bianche professional cycle race in Italy, which she described as "rock 'n' roll". I enjoyed chatting with her so much as she was quite a laugh - and it was good to get in some practice speaking French too. We said we'd be in touch again, but all various commitments meant that we couldn't get together until today.

Talking to her, it's been non-stop - what with Tour de France, the Olympics, the Vuelta a Espana and many other smaller events. I must say the life of a sports photographer can be pretty full-on hearing what she has to do - long days, walking around carrying heavy equipment, sometimes on the back of a motorbike speeding down the hill following a rider descending a mountain pass, then packing up to do another race in another country etc. So I can understand why when she has the odd break between her assignments she is totally "off" - away from work conversations and her computer. 

Pauline also photographs other sports like the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros stadium, and football matches with Paris St Germain at Parc des Princes. What I found funny was that she's not a massive football fan and she just gets on with the job professionally. The footballers, including football megastar Lionel Messi, are just professional athletes. Yet meanwhile, gazillions of football fans around the world would give their eye teeth just to get within 20 feet of him!

I hope to see Pauline again, who know - maybe even in person at a race. Hopefully I won't have to wait six months.

This is the first-person feature I wrote about Pauline earlier this year.

Photo of the day - 6: Talking to Norma Gimondi about Felice

 

As part of the work that I am doing on a feature article about the Tour of Lombardy I had the pleasure of interviewing Norma Gimondi on the phone. She is the daughter of the man above, Felice Gimondi, one of Italy's greatest bike racers. 

Felice won all three of the Grand Tours (Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, Vuelta a Espana) in the 60s and 70s, including winning the Giro three times. He also won the World Championships in 1973, and the Tour of Lombardy twice. The great man sadly passed away at the age of 76, a couple of years ago after suffering a heart attack while on holiday. 

I have good memories of interviewing Felice Gimondi in Bergamo in 2012, when I took part in the eponymous cyclosportive (Gran Fondo) held in his honour. So it was good to speak to Norma today. She had lots of stories to tell about her father's days racing, and she spoke with a lot of pride. She mentioned how much he enjoyed riding up the Madonna del Ghisallo climb, and how he got the hunger knock and left with nothing to eat he had to pick figs off the trees. She also mentioned how upset Eddy Merckx was when Felice beat him at the Tour of Lombardy. Even in 2014 at gala event, almost 50 years after the event, Eddy didn't want to be reminded of the day and refused to autograph a photo she had of her dad crossing the finish line ahead of Merckx. 

Norma said it always makes her feel happy to talk about Papa, as she calls him. Based in Bergamo, where the family is established, Norma is a lawyer by trade, and she is also vice president of the Italian Cycling Federation. For her, it is important to preserve the Gimondi name in cycling, and that is one way that she can do it - through being involved in Italian cycling. I really enjoyed my chat with Norma Gimondi, and hope I get to meet her in person in the not-distant future.

Photo of the day - 5: Cycling up Toys Hill the hard way

This is one of my favourite views when I go cycling in the Kent lanes. I rode past here today. It's the view over the Kent Weald, from Puddledock hamlet. I imagine on a very clear day you can see Bough Beech reservoir and Hever Castle from here - once you've had time to get your breath back. 

Yes, the ride up Puddledock Lane after coming down past Chartwell is not easy at all. I call it the hard way up Toys Hill. Toys Hill is hard enough, and puts fear into a many a local rider, especially as it is done towards the end of a ride when returning to South London, with its unrelenting gradients. But the route to the summit via Puddledock is harder. 

If you coordinate your turn well on the descent from Hosey Common you can use a bit of that momentum to carry you up the initial part of the hill - for all of one metre! Most of the time I have to take it easy when turning into this lane from Mapleton Road as it is a sharp left-hand turn. Also, there's a rapid click of the gears as I try to find the granny ring. 

After that it's a steady grind, up the narrow road that goes straight up, with 15%+ sections. You can't go all out, as you need your wits about you if a car is coming down the hill, or even other cyclists too. Also, it's best to get used to the gradient at this time of year while the road is dry. Often in autumn and winter the road surface is damp and you end up having to do the whole thing in the saddle to avoid the back wheel spinning. So if your legs are primed for this type of effort, doing in the saddle won't seem so onerous. 

I seem to have made it sound like a hill too be avoided. But I really love that sense of satisfaction when you reach the top, and Toys Hill Well, with it's lovely view and park bench make for a just respite and reward, before carrying on to join the main Toys Hill and ride up the last hard section, and enjoying the long fast descent to Brasted.

I did do another difficult climb after Puddledock - Westerham Hill. That one was still hard, but not as quad-busting as the previous push I had to do, so I was happy enough.

This is the link to the full route I did today.

Photo of the day - 4: Getting ready for Swim Serpentine, London

It was quite a surprise to see this photo of me on the Swim Serpentine weekly newsletter. It's actually a photo the organisers took of me just after I finished my one-mile swim at Swim Serpentine about two or three years ago. I was really buzzing from the enjoyment of the event, and the fact that I had had a good swim over one mile. It's not always the case. Sometimes the water is choppy, or you bump into other competitors. Sometimes I get tense in the water, particularly if I can't see the buoys and I lose sight of where I'm going. But this was a good swim, with lots of buoys to help with sighting, loads of crowd support in Hyde Park and on the Serpentine Bridge, and even swans for company! 

The photo is also a reminder to train, and the fact that the event is just a couple of weeks away. I have signed up for the two-mile event, which is a stretch target, though I have done lots of swimming this year. Swimming was the first organised sports we could do when lock-down measures were eased. However, it hasn't always been easy for me to fit in the time to swim two miles. A mixture of my busy schedule, and some venues only allowing you to swim for an hour has meant that it's quite hard to go the full distance.

The good thing is that when I aired this issue on the Open Water Swimming Facebook group I had lots of replies from people naming venues where it is possible to swim for longer than an hour - including one of my local open-water swimming venues at the Royal Victoria Docks. So now, I just need to take myself to those venues. Not long to go until the big day - 18th September.

Photo of the day - 3: Women's cycling in Afghanistan

This is 25-year old Masomah Ali Zada, an Afghan woman who recently competed in the individual time trial in the Tokyo Olympics, as part of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team. Her appearance at the Olympics was a real landmark moment in sport. She had taken up cycling in her homeland at a time when rules about women doing sport were relaxed since the regression of the Taliban. Nevertheless, conservative sections of society still voiced their disapproval of women doing sport, and people would even throw stones at Masomah and her sister Zahra when they out cycling. This didn't stop her joining the Afghan national team, but due to persecution by other tribes within Afghanistan (She and her family are Hazara minority.) Masomah and her family were granted asylum in Lille, Northern France, where she is studying engineering at university. Speaking about the Olympics she said,

"It's not just my dream to get to the Olympics, but it is my responsibility to open the door for the other refugees in France. I want to represent the rights of women in all countries and also Afghanistan, who think that they cannot ride a bike. I've received messages of support from around the world with people saying, it doesn't matter that you finished 25th out of 25, you are already a winner because you raced."

That was a very positive thing to see. Sadly, within a couple of weeks all that has changed, as the Taliban have once again taken charge of Afghanistan and women cyclists are living in fear for what will become of them as an imminent ban is imposed on women doing any sport. There is currently a fundraiser taking place to help rescue female Afghan cyclists. It's sad to think that something that we do without thinking about it in the UK, can become a real tour de force in other countries. I hope that women can be taken to a safe place, but I do feel sad knowing that for every woman rescued, there will be hundreds of thousands left behind. 

Here is the link to the fundraiser page

Photo of the day - 2: Islabikes eJanis eBike

 I finally got my review of the Islabikes eJanis written out and submitted to Cycling Weekly for publication on the website. I must say I find this e-bike quite elegant-looking, especially as the battery is discreetly built into the frame. The other thing too, is that it weighs 13.5kg, which is very light compared to other ebikes. Some ordinary mountain bikes weigh more than this e-bike. So if I ever had power failure, the bike is perfectly rideable without the motor. Of course, now that I have the motor I am going to use it. 

Review of the Islabikes e-Janis on Cycling Weekly website 

Photo of the day - 1: Gravel ride to Box Hill

This was me on the trails at Headley Common, near Box Hill on the August Bank Holiday weekend when I did a gravel ride out to the Surrey trails with my friend Arabella. It was all a bit vague as I had thought we might go along the North Downs and then pick up the Downs Link to get to the coast. But in the end we were more in the mood for doing things in a leisurely mode, given that it was the Bank Holiday. So we only actually got as far as Box Hill in the end! Mind you, we did do 45 miles in the end, which is not to be sniffed at for an off-road ride. It was a really fun day out, with new trails we did in South London around Riddlesdown and Coulsdon Common. Then we cut across onto the North Downs near Caterham, and followed them to Box Hill, with a couple of fun detours, before turning home along various trails in Epsom, Banstead and Carshalton. We did three cafe stops and stopped for a few photo sessions. So yes, it was all very leisurely and fun. A London to Brighton off-road ride is still on the menu for the near future though. 

The route on Strava is here