Tour de Suisse Gallery By Kristof Ramon

June 18, 2012

The Tour de Suisse is one of the biggest races on the World Tour calendar. Nine stages from June 9-17 which many riders use as their final preparation towards the Tour de France. Taking the overall victory was Movistar's Rui Costa by gaining the necessary time on Frank Schleck on stage two and holding on with the help of his teammate Alejandro Valverde. Peter Sagan gave us a display of the extraordinary rider he's becoming by winning the prologue and three stages as well as the overall points classification. Here is a gallery of moments from the Tour de Suisse by Belgian photographer Kristof Ramon.

: Gaëtan Bille(Lotto Belisol) doing a recon of the prologue course

: Fabian’s two bottle storage solution whilst on the wind trainer warming up for the opening prologue

: Cyclings most famous (professional) fan: Didi “El Diablo” Senft

: Left: Jonas Van Genechten (Lotto Belisol) Right: Levi Leipheimer(Omega Pharma – Quickstep)

: Left: Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing) Right: Olivier Kaisen (Lotto Belisol)

: Frank Schleck finishing second during stage 2 after being overtaken in the final meters by Movistar’s Rui Costa.

: Matty Wilson of Orica-GreenEDGE leading the peloton during stage 3

: Jonas Van Genechten (Lotto Belisol) in the breakaway during stage 3

: Frederique Robert (Lotto Belisol) collecting drink bottles during stage 3

: Fans waiting for the peloton to cross the finish line in Trimbach during stage 4

: Post race portrait of Tyler Farrar (Garmin Barracuda) after stage 3

: Peloton during stage 4 from Aarberg – Trimbach/Olten

: Brian Vandborg(SpiderTech) in the breakaway during the final lap on stage 4

: Peter Sagan(Liquigas Cannondale) collecting his third stage victory on stage 4.

: Inside the Spidertech team bus

: Dario Cataldo (Omega Pharma -Quickstep) after stage 4

: Rui Costa (Movistar) takes the victory on stage 2 by overtaking Schleck in the final meters and gaining 4 seconds. It was all that he needed to take the overall lead by 14 seconds. Frank Schleck was second followed by Levi Leipheimer.

Michal

Very original bottle storage solution in photo “Fabian’s two bottle storage solution whilst on the wind trainer warming up for the opening prologue” Possibly if he would have the bottle in the downtube he might have won the prologue he has lost by couple of seconds on the downhill section… I’ve read somewhere that bottle in downtube makes it more aerodynamic than compared to no bottle at all or both bottles. Possible this applies only to “normal” bike frames?
- jules
  
  also interesting is how he retrieved the bottles for a sip?
  - Ian
    
    On that trainer, the front wheel doesn’t spin.
    - Faz
      
      The humour has been lost on you Ian.
  - Sean Doyle
    
    He just opens his mouth in the stream as it’s being spun out of the bottle. Only lasts for a km though and he should have them on opposite sides for balance otherwise it would feel like some Rotor wheel.
Anonymous

Wonderful images!
Huge

Beautiful images.

Third photo from the bottom. Anyone know where to get the skewer with a roller
on it?
- Faz
  
  You could make your own. Should be able to grab a roller like that from a hardware or camping store and mount it on a skewer yourself. Just a suggestion.
- http://twitter.com/james_foran James Foran
  
  I think they come with the work stand…
- Matthew DeMaere
  
  The one in the picture is likely to be BBB part: “Chaingrip BTL-50″. Park Tools makes something similar.
- Nigel
  
  As per Mathew’s response BBB make one, “BBB BTL-50 Chain Grip”, $25 from wiggle.co.uk
- Rob
  
  I made one last week for less than $5. Go to bunnings and by a bolt with a wingnut, and a small wheel. I cut the rubber tyre off the wheel so the chain could sit on the plastic rim. Thread the bolt thru and us the wingnut to tighten it to the dropout. Easy peasy.
  
  Makes transporting the bikes with the wheels off much less messy as well.
https://twitter.com/#!/BPriestie Priestie

New model Sidi’s to take on Specialized’s ‘all white’ shoes or just customs?

Either way, they look hot!
- Anonymous
  
  I’d suggest the white is due to sponsor issues. Probably covered by electric tape or the like.
- MJ
  
  I agree the plain sidi’s look the goods. Ergo 3′s are too blingy and look terrible.
  I love plainer shoes like the Fizik and Rapha ones at the moment.
  Take note Sidi!
Abdu

New level of awesomeness the Sagan-Monster, proudly displaying moose knuckle while tipping the number of podium girls he will take home…bring on his Tour domination!
Ed

switzerland has some epic climbs but everyone always thinks about france & italy. is a great place to ride a bike
Martin

Hello,
The images are great, creative. It is really a welcome change from the usual “Watson” type of imagery. Well done!

A little technical question to Kristof Ramon:
Do you have a broken filter in front of one of your lenses??
I ask this question because your close-up portraits of the riders show a repeating pattern that looks like a broken filter that appears when shooting at a short depth of field (ie wide-open)…

(It happened to me once, and it only appeared on the photos that were shot wide-open (ex: f2, f2.8). The pattern in three of your portraits reminded me of that…)

(Please excuse my english…)

Tour de Suisse Gallery By Kristof Ramon

June 18, 2012

Related articles: