Armstrong Festival 2009

This year it's been mandated from above that I stick to a budget for my race entry fees. As I'm still a student, this probably isn't such a bad idea. The shit part is that this means I can't enter all the races I want. One of those is the Armstrong Festival of cycling, which involves a race around a local hill ride, and a crit the following day. Since I couldn't compete, I decided to stake out a good spot, cheer on some mates, and grab some pics. It was a bit of a learning experience - in particular I learned crits are alot easier to shoot compared to road races, because they come by you more than once.

From Armstrong2009

And as much as I hate to say it, seeing crashes is kind of exciting - I'm not sure how bad this one was, but he got up and continued on. I like the look on the faces in the crowd:

From Armstrong2009

It was pretty cool to see some big local names out - like Heath Blackgrove, who won the 2009 tour of Southland, and got married like the very next day. Not quite as lucky in Christchurch though:

From Armstrong2009

Also in attendance was local boy done good (in Belgium) Jack Bauer - his exploits are pretty well covered by Pez. He's recently signed to Endura, so over to GB, but not before winning the road race.

From Armstrong2009

There was also a great finish to the crit; sources tell me that the win had been negotiated, but apparently they forgot to tell Alex Ray of team Bici Vida - you can see him donning the pain face as he puts on a move at the last s-bend on the course, about 300m from the line - and he made it stick!

From Armstrong2009

All in all a great weekend of cycling - it took me forever to post the stuff, but I thought I'd better get it up before the national champs next weekend. Needless to say, I'm not competing, but I'd like to get some more good photos, and will post them soon!