Kategoriarkiv: Sport

Tour de France 2013: The soigneurs

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One of the many tasks for the Lotto Belisol soigneurs is to bring the riders bottles of drinks at the feeding zones. One bootle marked X containing carbohydrates and one marked R containing electrolytes. How they know which rider get what? They don’t. They just hand them out as fast as they can to the passing riders and the riders make it work.

Tour de France 2013: The soigneurs. Photo: Christer Hedberg | christerhedberg.se

© Christer Hedberg | christerhedberg.se

» See all my photos from Tour de France 2013

Tour de France 2013: Riding high

Tour de France 2013: Josef Zimov?ák. Photo: Christer Hedberg | christerhedberg.se

A few hours after Mick Bell had passed us on his chopper bike, yet another off bike passed us high up on Mont Ventoux, this time a man on his Penny-farthing high wheeler. In a world filled with hipsters on fixes, this bike is the ultimate fixie.

A few days later we met the rider again just as he finished the climb up Alpe d’Huez. The rider turned out to be czech Josef Zimov?ák  – tenfold world champion in riding high bicycles. He’s also founder of the childrens charity Na kole d?tem – On bike for children that aims to support children with oncological diseases. The ride at Tour de France was made to raise money to the charity. Yet another bicycling hero.

» Na kole d?tem web site
» See all my photos from Tour de France 2013

© Christer Hedberg | christerhedberg.se

Tour de France 2013: The chopper

Tour de France 2013: The chopper. Photo: Christer Hedberg | christerhedberg.se

Hey, did that guy that just passed us ride a…? Noooo. Was he…? Really?!

I grab my camera and run up the road to catch him on photo. When most riders ride on light carbon fibre bikes, he is riding up Mont Ventoux on a chopper bike, complete with the long saddle and the frame mounted gear lever.

A few days later at Alpe d’Huez, we walk by a camper with an orange chopper at the back. Surely there can’t be more than one orange 70’s chopper bike at the Tour de France? And sure enough, the bike had been ridden at Mont Ventoux a few days earlier by the Brittish rider Mick Bell.

© Christer Hedberg | christerhedberg.se

» See all my photos from Tour de France 2013