Bob Roll, Tour of California. Sacramento, California. February 14, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Former professional bicycle racer and current cycling commentator Bob Roll near that Astana team van before the start of the prologue stage of the 2009 Amgen Tour of California in Sacramento, California.
I photographed Bob Roll as he queued up more or less with the rest of the crowd to wait for Lance Armstrong to emerge from the Astana team van to warm up before the prologue stage of the 2009 Tour of California. For those who don’t follow cycling, Roll was a professional bicycle racer back in the days of the 7/11 team, the first great American cycling team. Since that time he has become better known as a television bicycle racing announcer working on the Versus broadcasts of major cycling races.
This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
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Awesome photograph. That look, that is the look that I think of when I read the stories of his rides in Europe as “he tore the legs off” his adversaries!
Steve, thanks for leaving the comment. I’d forgotten the “tore the legs off” reputation, but the other one I heard had him referring to himself (and perhaps the rest of the team?) as a cave man IIRC. :-)
Dan,
I don’t know much about portraits, but I really like some of these latest ones, especially this one and the Lance Armstrong one!
Hi Charlie! I’m sure you know more than I about portraits… but thanks. That photograph was a combination of planning and sheer luck. My two sons and I were at the Sacramento time trail early since we like to wander around and see who and what we can see during the warm-up period before the race. In a time trial each rider goes alone – they start about a minute apart over a period of roughly three hours. About an hour before Armstrong was scheduled to make his run we found ourselves near his team’s “van” (more of a giant RV actually) and I figured that it might be just about time for him to come out and start his warm up. I put a 100-400mm zoom (I guess you don’t know much about those either… ;-) on the camera and queued up with the rest of the crowd, gradually working myself up into a spot where there was a good view of the doorway to the vehicle.
As luck would have it, he soon emerged and started signing autographs to my right. As he walked from left to right he passed directly in front of me and I fired off a few frames between the heads and extended arms of those trying to get autographs. Half of the shots are obstructed, but about three were clear – and in this one I think I timed the shot just right to get this great expression from him.
I like this shot of Bob Roll a lot, too. Probably many of the people there had little or no idea who he is or what his history is in the sport. Beyond all of that, he has an extremely interesting face!
I’ve decided that in many ways shooting the stuff around the race – the stuff that suggests the feeling of the event or the people – is far more interesting than shooting some guys riding really fast over a finish line. Live and learn!
Take care,
Dan