shutter.
Cycling teams click in tandem like a
well built clock during a race except
for one part: Time Trials. In a TT,
riders are stripped of team elements
and responsibilities to an almost naked
state. No domestique. No autobus.
Instead of increased vulnerability, there
is a race within a race that challenges
the cyclist to compete against time
itself. This journey is Homeric. Intense
battles in their head, and battles on
the ground to fight and win. This
journey is also primal, requiring them
to stop thinking and just push as they
learned in training. Push against time.
Push against thought. Push their
muscles, push their lactic threshold.
Push with an intensity to make their
training not have been for naught.
Concentration on that level means
these riders are not engaged with
anything outside the ride itself, (unless
a couch in their ear). Once finished,
there is an exact moment between
coming out of the race and beginning
the rest and recovery process. Before
even knowing their time, or what
place they ranked. And I wanted to
capture that exact moment, before
they were back in their heads, back
into flashing forward and flashing
back, and being only in the now.
BEHIND
THE SHUTTER
exact moment was a challenge. At
first I was set too close to the finish
line, meaning cyclists would fly past
me unable to stop and I'd miss the
shot. Finally, I reset during the trial
(lights, sandbags - the whole deal)
farther away while still shooting every
two minutes as the riders came in.
I've got to hand it to everyone who
stepped onto my backdrop–I was
unable to offer them anything, even
water, as they let me shoot. Take for
example Peter Sagan: I loved when
Sagan came through, handed my
assistant his bike and just collapsed
onto the backdrop. Complete
exhaustion, head in his hands, stripped
of everything. Exactly what I was
looking for, what I knew I'd find.
Jeff Clark | jeffclarkphoto.com
In order to align with the stripped
down experience of the TT, I wanted
to shoot very simple portraits: a white
backdrop, closely cut shots, much in
the style of Avedon. What interests
me is that tiny period of time between
race and rest, much like the space
between sleep and awake: not quite
there, not quite here. Capturing that
•••
PELOTONMAGAZINE.COM
