It was a warm day out today for the CCCX DH #5 racers, fans, and photographers.  I’m not sure what the temp was at the park, but I did see that my car indicated 100 while I was driving through Morgan Hill on the way home.

The course seemed pretty loose & sandy today, especially in the technical sections.  I saw a couple riders tires slide out while they were going through the loose stuff.  I caught a couple slow motion crashes on camera, and at the end of the day I caught the “second before the crash” for one rider, then had deja vu while watching the next rider crash at the exact same spot and fashion. Luckily he decided to crash on the other side of the trail so he didn’t crash into us.  Of course, I don’t think he planned on that.  Good to know both riders were ok, as I chatted a bit with them in the medics tent after.

I tried to get a variety of images by moving up & down the course throughout the day.  I personally like a good variety

Race image galleries can be found here.

Once again, the Sea Otter Classic was a blast!  Due scheduling issues, I was only able to make Thursdays races/practices.  But I had a great time getting back into the sports photography mode.  I’ve uploaded my top 30-something images from the day and posted them to the blog, while I’ve uploaded a bunch more to the Sea Otter Classic 2010 gallery on MTBR.com

I had a good day though.  I played in a roller hockey tourny the night before, so I got to bed at about 12pm after skating hard for 5 periods.  I woke up thursday morning at about 5:30am, and loaded all my gear in the car.  I’ve learned it is waaaaay easier to have everything packed up & ready to go by the door than try to find everything in the morning.  Also the people still sleeping in the house won’t appreciate me going through all my stuff trying to find my gear.  After a quick stop at McDonalds (to find they don’t open til 6am), the gas station, and McDonalds #2 (which was open) I was on my way to Laguna Seca.

I got to the venue around 7:30, picked up my media pass & headed out to the Pro Downhill practice.  I spent about an hour & a half or so shooting from different locations to vary the images I was getting.

After getting the downhill for a while, I headed over to the race track where the Mens Masters 45+ Cat 4/5 Criterium race was already under way.  I was only able to get the last 3-4 laps or so, so there wasn’t too many images from that race.  I’m only posting two since they were the ones I felt came out the best.

I hung around since the Cat 3 Mens Criterium was starting up in a minutes.  I was able to stay the whole race, and since I had the time I moved around to find some sweet shooting locations at different places around the track.  I mostly was hanging out near the last couple turns before the final straights.  I found I could get the riders as they came past me on one side, and I had enough time to get them coming around the back way.

After photographing that race, I headed out to lunch with Crank Brothers as they introduced new components for their XC and All Mountain line.  They also introduced a new book, Chronology, which is filled with tons and tons of MTB photos, and they discussed their Dream Bikes program.  I didn’t have a chance to stay & ask questions or get closeups of their products, since I wanted to go photograph some dirt jumping for a few minutes before the Dual Slalom Qualifying got under way.

There was a couple crashes and a few mechanicals during qualifying, but nothing major, which is good.  It was over much quicker than I thought it would be, so I missed a few images I had planned to get.  But I was still able to come out with some good ones.

After the DS Qualifying, I headed back to the Criterium course to catch some of the Womens Cat 1/2/3 race before I needed to head home.  I caught a couple laps worth of images, as well as Life Flight as it took off from the helipad.

During the Mens Crit races I decided I needed a panorama of Laguna Seca, so I figured I’d put it up last!

After I was done shooting, I packed up, headed out to Phat Burger for an early dinner.

Its been quite a weekend.  Saturday my wife ran a trail marathon on Mt Tam and Stinson Beach in 10+MPH winds, big time fog, and a little rain, and Sunday I drove down to Toro Park in Salinas in the wind to photograph the CCCX Downhill #3 race.

It was definitely one of those days.  I had a car crash right in front of me on the freeway that was going the other direction south of Gilroy.  Since I had no place to pull off and get back to the other car safely, I just went ahead and dialed 911.

The race was fun though, even though it was pretty windy & rained on everyone most of the afternoon.  I didn’t look like there were any big crashes though, which is good.

Race image galleries can be found here.

I guess technically it would be DH #1 since the real #1 was postponed, but yet its DH #2

Race was fun, though it got pretty warm sitting out there in the sun.

Race photos can be found here in our galleries.

The weather Friday was dark & windy, and was a precursor to how the weather Sat would be.  Turns out Saturday was a combination of some nice sun, dark clouds, a little bit of wind, and as a grand finally there was a HUGE cloudburst.  Hopefully the guy who crashed hard today and ended up in the ER will be fine.  I only saw one crash, which was by when I was sitting by the big mud puddle.

Race photos can be found here.

It was a really nice day today out at Toro Park in Salinas.  It wasn’t too terribly hot and we got a nice breeze throughout most of the day.  Plus anytime you get a flyover by 4 F-15 fighter jets always makes it a good day.

The galleries are located here, and the pics are ready to order.

There were many crashes that I saw today, but it looked like everyone got up (relatively) uninjured which is good.  Though I do have to thank ya’ll for making it an entertaining day for us photographers!