2014 Tour Of Friendship Stage 1

Once again I had the privilege to go back and shoot the Tour of Friendship amateur road cycling race in Thailand.  I have now ridden the race once and shot it three times and each year I return it just gets better and better.  Khun Kai (Titaree Tanakorn) and her army of helpers are doing a great job and this would be one of the best value for money races I’ve been too, providing you can get yourself to Thailand.

It was a mixed bag in terms of teams this year and I didn’t really know who were the favourites.  The Specialized Mavericks brought along a big team which was spread out over the different categories and they looked strong in Cat 1.  Direct Asia had a solid lineup but I only knew of two riders who were potential podium finishers, however they had a experienced group of domestiques to help them.  The other team of note were Champion Systems.  In the womens category Eri Yonamine proved she was a force to be reckoned with when she produced a time in the individual time trial that many of the men would have been pleased to have.  I think she used the tour as a training camp as she rode the remainder of the race in the Open Mens cat and from what I saw she held her own.

For me, this year was hard work as I flew more or less straight to Thailand from the UK.  This put me on the back foot as I suffered from terrible jetlag during the first few days.  Once I got over that I started to enjoy it a lot more.  Being back on the back of the motorbike was also lots of fun and my driver (I called him ‘Valentino’) was just awesome.  I swear we had both our knees down on stage 3. Here are a few favorites from Stage 1. If you would like to purchase any images you can view them all on my website at www.craigsheppard.co.nz

img_Sports_0421The starting straight.

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A few shots of the Cat 1 boys starting their race.

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Uncle Pete (Direct Asia) mixing it with the Cat 1 boys. Great effort Pete!

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John Bateman (Anza) starts his run!

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Richard Paine (Specialized Mavericks) brings the bling with his gold chain on his Specialized SL4.

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Tina Haugbro finishes a fast and furious lap of the course.  And some wheel trouble for one of the ladies.

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Eri Yonamine (Forza) powers up the hill to the finish while Sarah Clark (Specialized Mavericks) crosses the line.

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