Category Archives: Cycling

The Giro d'Italia

By PatitucciPhoto | Published May 30, 2008

One look through our body of photography reveals we do not shoot much cycling.
Why, when I am all consumed by this beautiful sport do I not shoot it?
“Don’t combine work with fun.”
“Keep your personal and biz life separate?”
Yes, I guess these are the reasons.
But here and there we shoot it, and I enjoy it.
I grew up in America yet with a strange love for European cycling. Somewhere along the lines I found the sport and have been passionate about it ever since. From racing fulltime, to strict training programs, to just going out each day and being on my bike, cycling is the one sport that has remained with me all through my life, 30 years on my bike, always looking forward to it. It is also one of the primary reasons for living in Italy, for here it is a culture. The quality of the riding and those you ride with is something extraordinary.

And so a special day came along on May 26. The Giro d’Italia visited our town. It was a day that when I first saw it on the schedule, I would allow nothing to get in the way of me watching this stage, live. Even better, it was an uphill time trial on my very own training roads.
I left the house early on my bike, intending to ride up the course and check out the going’s on. I was not disappointed, like a river of people, uphill it flowed, all the Tifosi streaming up the course.
Names were being painted on the road, banners raised, good viewpoints staked out. As I pedaled up the 16% climb, I, along with all the other riders were cheered for. Everyone was getting in the mood to scream a bit louder.
Finally nearing the top, I realized I was surrounded by pro riders, they were on course checking it out. And there, right alongside me, Alberto Contador himself, looking focused and prepared to defend his maglia rosa.
I stuck around a bit, gawked, then descended straight to my house to get Janine and meet friends to head back up for the race.

At the house I decided, “Okay, one lens, I’ll shoot something”. Some part of me just wants to watch, to look into the eyes, to see the effort, not to be shooting. I have been shooting work each day, all week, now I just want to take it all in, be a tifosi and scream for each rider. But the camera, thankfully, goes along.

We take the gondola to the top of the ski mountain, get out and find ourselves in a sea of humanity, all there to see these riders time trial up a dirt and gravel road that rises as much as 24%. It is too much I think, ridiculous, just too steep. Torture. Even the motorcycles struggle to get up it.

As we begin walking down the course, the roaring begins, a rider is coming, and there, finally, not zipping by as is so typical when watching a pro race, but slowly, painfully even, rocking the bike from side to side, all the effort of 24% on his face. It is brutal, it is beautiful. Goosebumps cover me, I am in the tunnel of fans all screaming and pounding on the barriers.

Rider after rider passes, I shoot some photos, I talk to some fans. The older lady next to me knows each rider by sight, at 200 meters, she just knows. “Here comes Bosisio”, she gasps, and then, “Bettini!!!, Bettini is coming”, she sees the World Champion before I do, the intensity of the screaming doubles as Paolo rides by, he rises from his saddle and his back wheel spins a bit on the loose gravel, a small stone shoots out from his wheel and it goes between the woman and I.

Finally, the last rider appears, but before him, like a wave of energy, the sound comes. Screaming, sirens, stomping and pounding; the maglia rosa is coming on the back of Alberto Contador. Finally, I am witness to the sport I love so much. Contador passes inches from me, the old woman always keeping her hand on my shoulder in case I lean too far out while I make my photos.
I shoot, drop my camera, stare at this athlete and scream for the maglia rosa, for cycling (high drama for Italians!!) and for all the energy I am a part of. My own voice cannot be heard above the roar, I am just a part of it all.

Morris Possoni arriving at the steep

Giovanni Visconti, Italian National Champion rolls through

Alberto Contador in the maglia rosa

More images from the Giro:
http://patituccistock.com/giro/

Also posted in DolomiteSport, Photography | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Passo delle Erbe

By PatitucciPhoto | Published May 6, 2008
My speed picks up, what was a casual, settled pace becomes frenetic. I’m entering a different place, the road is narrowing, more defined, soon it’s just a path lined with green, lush life. Still I climb, as I have been doing for so long, but suddenly it becomes purposeful, not for the top but for the feelings.

Eminem is along for the ride, reminding me of other ways, other styles, but universal words apply.

I got every ingredient, all I need is the courage
Like I already got the beat, all I need is the words
Got the urge, suddenly it’s a surge
Suddenly a new burst of energy is occurred
–Eminem: 8 Mile


A sublime sense comes over me knowing that I am on my own path, the path I have earned, that I have created, not the path that I could be on.

I have never really understood what drives me, what gives me the “Go” I have always felt for living the way I have chosen to live. I have never really understood why I ride like I do.

This day helped me to understand. It is my dance, life’s rhythm that I move to, through the mountains, the environment or sometimes just the energy of life, on my bike, dancing – is enough for me.

My temples pound, the sweat cools my brow, my jersey unzipped and wide open allows the cool mountain air to pass over my body. With hands on the hoods I rock the bike back and forth, legs churning with the rhythm of 25 years of experience climbing. I float upward, today there is no sense of fatigue, no questioning, no doubting, just existence, a presence that is too infrequently felt.

Continuing on I am no longer sure if I am going up or down, nothing matters, only the rythm. The road twists, turns, rolls, steepens, yet I easily flow through it; present and, …what? The term awaits me, insight to that nagging question. Is being present enough?
Finally, and so simply, it comes to me… Having found my path, the next step is to experience it in the presence, honestly, and with no expectations. Always.

As I consider where I am, my actions, I begin to feel at peace. I am present. The landscape is opening up as I near the top, the road is steep again just when it hurts the most, when I think I see the end.
I arrive at the top, just a word for where I find myself. There is still much ahead of me, the descent.

But now I must find water and so I ask the only other person on the pass, an old man mindfully stacking wood, where I might find some. He is impressed when I tell him where I have come from and what I have done today. He points far below into the meadows, down all the many paths, to a village in the distance, his village, from which he has done so many things over a lifetime.

I take my water and begin my descent from the mountain back into the bustling valley.




Also posted in DolomiteSport, Personal Story, Random Thoughts | Tagged , , | 1 Comment