Craig Sheppard Photographer

Today was the final stage of the race and after a rough few days I was kind of looking forward to it.  It was another flat stage on a mixture of big wide roads and country roads.  I decided to start with the Open group and work my way back down through the groups and try and capture the faces of the peloton rather than the country side.

The Open started like a bat out of hell and the pace was through the roof, who would have thought these guys had 4 days of racing in their legs however there was some real suffering going on.  Eventually it settled down and this is when I stopped and waited for the next group.  I stuck with the next group for a while before stopping at a little shop for a break and to wait for the next group.  Much to my surprise there was a group of guys drinking beer.  It was only 9.40 in the morning and they were already 6 big bottles down.  I declined the offer of a glass of beer and just took a couple of photos which they were happy to pose for.  Finally the last group rolled trough and I was off again.  I hadn’t shot this group before today so it was nice to capture some fresh faces and also get a few shots of the women in the peloton.

Todays race finished pretty close to the hotel thankfully as it was pretty hot.  After a quick shower it was off to the final lunch and prize giving and then onto the bus back to Bangkok airport.  In a way I was relieved to be heading home as this was the toughest race I’ve covered due to feeling off colour, however I still had a great time and I am looking forward to next year.

Various methods of race prep before the start.

A fast start for the Open guys.

Peloton Women.

Beer o’clock! 0940hr.

The race wouldn’t be what it is without all the hard work from this special lady.  Until next year Kai…..

Today was going to be a test for both myself and the riders.  After arriving at the new hotel and going straight to bed with heat stoke I wasn’t sure about surviving the heat on the back of the motobike on what was the longest stage of the race.  A big thanks to my roomy Pete Bennett for the imodium tablets and keeping an eye on me.  After a few miles on the back of the bike I was given a cold bottle of water and this miraculously fixed me and I was back into it.

The stage was pretty flat for the first 90km before the riders had to tackle a 7km long climb and then the remaining kilometers were rolling with some nasty little kickers to really test the legs.  I started the day with the Open and once the leaders of the 40s cat went over the king of the mountain I continued with them.  Just after I headed off to catch the leaders of the 40s the road surface turned to hard packed and dusty gravel.  The dusty conditions reminded me of scenes I’d seen on TV of professional races like Strada Bianca or Paris Roubaix.  I quickly caught two riders from the Specialized Mavericks trying desperately to get across to the lead group of 3 riders and with some solid chasing it wasn’t long before it was a group of 5.  The undulating terrain took it’s toll and the group was down to 4 for the last remaining 20km.  I had to leave the guys to head to the finish just as they were having a few little digs at each other to see who had the legs for the final 300-400m climb to the finish.  I had positioned myself just before the top of the climb and was pleased to see Alan Grant of Specialized Mavericks had attacked the group and was powering his way up the climb to take the stage win.  Here are a few shots from the day and you can see the Stage 4 gallery by clicking here.

Team Direct Asia controlled the front to the first big climb.

The pain was showing early on the big climb.

Lucky charm…..maybe??

The yellow jersey driving the pace off the front.

Peter Sagan eat your heart out!!

Strada Bianca?

Fast, smooth flowing roads out to the turn around point.

The water looked very inviting.

Alan Grant attacks on the final steep climb to the finish line.

This says it all…’Tour of Friendship’

The wonder boys!

Stage 2 started and finished in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ayutthaya.  I hadn’t really paid much attention to where we were, due to a few hotel room issues in addition to editing Stage 1 photos, so I was pleasantly surprised when we re-entered the city for the closing few kilometers. The temples and elephants were quite distracting.

After a short neutral zone at the start the attacks started and eventually a group of 4 got away.  I stayed with the peleton for a while before moving up the road to the break.  To my surprise there was a rider in no-mans-land trying to bridge across – Jimmy Butler was that man and he was flying! I really thought he was going to make it. He was within sight of the break when he came upon an over-bridge and this must have been what cooked him as after that the gap to the break began to grow.  I really wanted to give him a draft behind our motorbike but thought better of it and we left Jimmy to battle the heat and small breeze by himself.  If only we had stayed with him for a few more kilometers – there was a left turn where the tour signage was hard to spot and Jimmy (and a couple of others) missed it and ended up 80km from the finish after he had already ridden 110km chasing down the break – bugger!

Once I caught up with the break – after getting a bit lost ourselves – I stayed with them to the finish line. This is where the race came a bit unraveled and got very confusing.  I’m not sure if we were supposed to do laps of the city center but we did about 4 before heading to the finish.  To our surprise the peleton had already finished, after having dramas of their own, and they had agreed amongst themselves to neutralise the stage.  In typical Thai fashion it was all sorted out without any fuss and it was on to stage 3.  Below are a few images from the days racing and you can see the Stage 2 gallery here

Sunrise over Ayutthaya.

The first attacks start.

Small groups tried and failed to get across to the break.

The break worked well together.

The break rolls through at speeds around the mid 50km/hr mark.

Jimmy Butler going full gas to get to the break.  The break was so close…..yet so far.

The break races past the elephants.

Ayutthaya Temples were impressive (yet distracting).

Tough day in the saddle for some!

It’s hard to believe the 2015 Tour of Friendship has been and gone and entries are being taken for 2016.  I was excited to return this year as there was supposed to be a new course for the ITT and a new district for the remaining stages, however when the circumstances changed beyond the organisers’ control they were forced to revert back to the 7km ITT and a district visited back in 2011 for the rest of the race.  As usual Bangkok put on a scorcher of a day and it was super hot out on the course.  This was my fourth visit to the tour and it was a real challenge to get some new angles of the course and avoid melting into the asphalt.  I was pretty happy with the images in the end and here are a few from the days racing.  You can view the Stage 1 Gallery with the remaining images here.