Members of Team Columbia-HTC and a lone member of Team Cervelo move to the front of the pack as they work their way along 7th Street in St. Louis as part of the 7.5 mile circuit of the first stage of the Tour of Missouri on Monday. The first stage was won by Britain's Mark Cavendish, competing for Columbia-HTC, and consisted of ten laps of the circuit. Canon 1D IIN and 300mm f/4L lens; exposed 1/5000 sec. @ f/4, ISO 400.

Yesterday I was sent out to St. Louis by the Columbia Missourian to photograph professional cyclist Floyd Landis’ participation in Tour of Missouri, as well as the first stage of the race.  Landis, who was stripped of his victory in the Tour de France in 2006, his pedaling with an artificial hip, and he apparently consulted with a doctor in Columbia, Mo. before having the surgery in the UK.  I will link to that story when it goes up tomorrow.  For now, you can browse through some of my other photos from yesterday on the Missourian‘s Tour of Missouri photo gallery.

One thing I will say is that I was very, very happy with my choice of taking my 300 f/4.  Sure, 300 f/2.8 lenses are great in low-light situations, like indoor volleyball, but at an outdoor event like this, f/4 is plenty, the lens is extremely sharp, and unlike some of the other photographers at the media room at the Ballpark Hilton that night, I wasn’t complaining about my shoulder hurting!

I did get a weird comment from someone else about my new and favorite laptop, my MSI Wind netbook, as I used it to edit my take in Breeze Browser and then e-mail some of the better images back to the office before driving back two hours on I-70.  But, again: I’m trying to save my shoulders, back, and knees.  If you want to schlep around a 9-pound behemoth of a laptop, be my guest.  But that ain’t for me!

Content © 2009 David Kennedy | View Original Post | Comment | Filed under Updates | Tags: cycling, photojournalism, sports, St. Louis, Tour of Missouri