Special moments from the past month’s pro racing, as selected by the photographers who captured them
PREVIOUS PAGE Race UCI British National Championships Road Race, 25th June 2023 Photographer James York ‘Saltburn-by-the-Sea on the sunny North Yorkshire coast hosted this year’s British National Championships Road Race, and the course proved to be a true test for the best domestic riders. The women took on 2,800m of climbing over seven laps of a 19km circuit, while the men covered more than 4,000m of climbing over ten laps.
‘I knew the challenging course would cause lots of early splits, so I made sure I was in position to capture this image when the peloton was still together. Team DSM rider Pfeiffer Georgi attacked on the final climb to add the 2023 title to her 2021 victory. Fan favourite Fred Wright of Bahrain Victorious also took his long-awaited first pro win in the men’s race after breaking away from a trio on the last lap. As he crossed the line, Wright pointed to the sky in memory of teammate Gino Mäder, who died in a crash at the Tour de Suisse.’
BELOW Race Critérium du Dauphiné, 10th June 2023 Photographer Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP ‘With its typically hilly terrain, the Critérium du Dauphiné is often used as a marker of form ahead of the Tour de France. Throughout its history, champions such as Chris Froome and Primož Roglič have taken to the start line to size their rivals up and fit in a final chunk of training.
‘In this photo, Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) is celebrating his Stage 7 victory just before the finish line on the Col de la Croix de Fer. It was a long and mountainous day that also included the Col de la Madeleine and the Col du Mollard, and Vingegaard showed how strong he is ahead of his defence of the yellow jersey at this year’s Tour.
‘By the end of the Dauphiné, the Danish rider would be 2min 23sec ahead of his nearest rival, Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates).’
ABOVE Race Tour de Suisse, 18th June 2023 Photographer Chris Auld ‘In this photograph, Team DSM’s Romain Bardet cools down after the final stage of the Tour de Suisse. Stage 8 featured a rolling parcours and warm temperatures, which made for a difficult final individual time-trial, where Danish rider Mattias Skjelmose (Trek-Segafredo) managed to hold onto the race leader’s yellow jersey.
‘Generally, I don’t like shooting time-trials as I find them a bit boring, so at the Tour de Suisse I decided to cover the TT at just the start and finish, rather than being out on course. I’m glad I did, as I found I got a better sense of the efforts t
