Tag Archives: cycling

The Racers Doing Their Thing

In a recent post, I shared some shots of an evening at the Jerry Baker Velodrome in Marymoor Park, Redmond. We had a good time enjoying the racing, the food and the beer and, a couple of weeks later, they were holding a large meet with many international riders taking part. This seemed like it would be worth a follow up visit. That proved to be a good choice. The size of the field made for much interesting racing and some drama.

Getting there proved a touch more difficult because a concert was also on at Marymoor Park but we made it in before the events got underway, so all was good. The quality of some of the athletes was impressive. In one race, a breakaway was well established for a large part of the race and I thought there was no way that they would be pulled back. However, I was mistaken. With only a couple of laps to go, a few broke away from the pack and bridged the gap to overhaul the breakaway with what seemed like ridiculous ease. Most impressive.

There were some riders that were clearly in a league above. You could see them managing their performance through the races, coming to the front for a while, biding their time for much of the race and then turning on the power when it was required to come home with the win. Other riders went off on solo breaks which got them some time at the front but, by the end of the race, it was clear that they had burned themselves out. It made for a lot of fun to watch so I am grateful for the effort that they all made.

Another top evening out. The food truck may not have been quite so good, but the beer was still excellent, and the racing was a blast. We shall see when we can next get down there to watch some more.

Playing With the Insta360

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I did a little filming on a bike ride with an old GoPro Hero 5 of mine. The current generation of action cameras has all sorts of clever tech built in which can deal with rotation of the camera and stabilizing the image. The Hero 5 doesn’t have any of that and I ended up spending a lot of time stabilizing the images in post processing to try and get something usable out of it. I was surprised how badly it came out and started thinking about an upgrade to incorporate all of the newer capabilities. It was at this point that I got a little silly. I had seen videos before about the Insta360 cameras and had found them intriguing but not so much that I wanted to get one. Now I was looking for a new camera, the capabilities that they have seemed like it could be a good step forward.

For those that haven’t seen one, the Insta360 in its current X3 form has two cameras on opposite sides of the body with fisheye lenses with over 180 degrees of coverage. The sensors are 5.7K resolution and the camera can stitch the two outputs together to give spherical coverage. It also has a stick on which you can mount it which the camera will recognize the location of and take both images to effectively remove the stick from the video. With the high resolution of the original files, you can then use their software – either on your phone or using the desktop app – to pan and zoom around the original files and generate video output of whatever you want.

What this means is that you don’t have to frame a shot when you are shooting. The only thing you have to do is have the camera in the right place. You can worry about where it is pointing later on which is great when you are already doing something else. The removal of the stick is very impressive, only slightly undermined but the fact your hand that is holding it now looks a little odd. Also, if the shadow of the stick is in shot, the software doesn’t know to do anything about that! (As an aside, there is a mode where you only shoot with one side like a normal action camera if you want.)

What is the downside to all of this? Big files! You are shooting a lot of data on two cameras simultaneously so you can fill up cards fast. You do also have to then review each clip and pick your angles for the shots, but you would have had to do that beforehand otherwise so no great loss. Other than that, not a lot to complain about. I have tried it on a few occasions so far. The length of the stick makes it seem like you have a drone flying above you if you put it up there. A cool result. I took it out on a bike ride to see how things came out and I have a short video below that shows you the result. No great cinematography here but an introduction to what can be done. Remember that each shot is only moving the camera around and the panning and zooming is all done back at home. Amazing tech!

Tour de Lopez

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I get plenty of emails about cycling events taking place in the Pacific Northwest. Some of them are of interest, some are way too hard for me, and some are not at a time that works for me. However, the Tour de Lopez ticked all the right boxes. It was a ride around Lopez Island in the San Juans so I asked various people to see whether they would be interested in taking part. I got a few positive responses, so I registered.

The ferry times to Lopez are not normally good for an early start but Washington State Ferries had arranged for the 7:30 from Anacortes to make an extra stop at Lopez for the event. This was good but it did mean an early start from home to get up to Anacortes in time to put the bike together, get a ticket and board. Unfortunately, in the days prior to the event, everyone progressively bailed on me. The night before, it was just me. I decided to go for it anyway.

The weather on the island was forecast to be nice but the temps are significantly lower on the islands at this time of year, so I decided to layer up. This worked well. I also decided to take my old GoPro with me to record the day. I was glad I did. It was an excellent ride. The route winds around the island and comes through a variety of bays. With the sun shining, these bays look so idyllic. On a normal ride, I might be more focused on keeping moving but on this I was in no hurry so I would stop to make sure I could get some video of the ride.

There were a bunch of rest stops along the route. Plenty of cyclists were taking part – it was sold out – but it never felt crowded. You would see people passing by but wouldn’t be in large groups. The nice thing about the island is that there is not a huge amount of traffic, so it is a great place to ride. I would occasionally see some familiar faces from earlier in the ride too. It ended up back at Lopez Village where they had laid on some food. I bumped into a couple of guys I had seen before, and we had lunch and then rode back towards the ferry.

The ferry ride back was a nice way to end off the day and I was able to pack up my stuff in the car and head home. The day was so much fun, and I hope the video shows just how good it was. The guys that had been unable to join clearly liked the video because we ended up setting up a second attempt. We did this a few weeks later and used a later ferry to start the day so it was a more relaxed affair.

Riding Up the Centennial Trail

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I have been doing a lot of riding my bike this year and have been gradually expanding how far I go. I decided I wanted to do a longer ride but figured I should not combine that with lots of hills in case I overextended myself a touch. I figured it might be a good time to try out the Centennial Trail. This is a trail that starts in Snohomish and runs 30 miles up past Marysville and Arlington to the county line with Skagit.

An out and back seemed like it could be fun and it is a converted disused rail line so it wouldn’t have hills. (That isn’t true of course. It does have hills but the grades are gentle. I wondered why I was slow for a while and then found myself zipping along so clearly the grades were noticeable.). I started early one morning which meant I avoided some of the busier traffic that comes later in the day.

It was a fun ride. Once out of Snohomish, the trail only occasionally crosses any roads so you can trundle along without much interruption. Since it is an old rail line, there are some old rail bridges to cross occasionally when you get to rivers. There are mile posts to let you know how you are doing and even areas where horse riders can cross when hoof marks have been set into the surface. Aside from a brief stretch through Arlington’s more industrial areas, it is a pleasant ride. A nice park in Arlington itself provides a stop off if you need it and the end of the trail is at a barn seemingly in the middle of nowhere. A good ride to get 60 miles under your belt!

Herne Hill Good Friday Meet 2003

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Not long before we left the UK, I finally got around to doing something I had meant to do many times and always forgot about until it was too late. A visit to the Good Friday meet at the velodrome in Herne Hill. Since it was south London, it was a pretty easy place to get to by train so no need to fight the traffic in to Town. It was a big deal in those days – maybe it still is – and it attracted a great selection of riders. Some pros showed up to race or to be seen. David Millar was there being interviewed but didn’t race. I was really pleased to see Stuart O’Grady, I rider I really enjoyed watching race.

The track scene had a selection of established stars and up and comers that I new about vaguely from reading Cycling Weekly. Chris Newton was a big deal in those days although he never became a widely known cyclist. However, there were two young guys competing that day that I knew were pretty good. I didn’t know they would go on to better things. One was a chubby young sprinter called Chris Hoy. The other was a good pursuiter called Bradley Wiggins. Olympic and Tour de France glory awaited them later in their careers. I was very tempted by one of the t-shirts on sale that day. It said “I’m not fat, I’m a sprinter!”. If you’ve ever seen the physique of some of the fastest sprinters, you would find this funny.