The Can-Am U19 Challenge (organized by Skylands Cycling) is consistently the best all-around junior bicycling race on the East coast. 2008 marked NCVC Juniors' fourth consecutive year at Can-Am. We brought seven young men to the three event omnium -- an uphill mountain time trial, a ballpark criterium, and a fairgrounds circuit race. All very beautiful venues -- and, for once in quite a few races this season, the weather was perfect. A little rain closed Sunday's circuit event, but that was good against lofty expectations. The guys did great -- several podiums, and a team trophy. My 17 year-old pushed to a mid-race tie for first place overall (GC -- general classification), but was marked, blocked and faded to a very respectable top-ten GC result. His powerful teammate grabbed GC 2nd in the 17-18 year class. Next year, when both boys will be racing age 18, is quite promising. Same story for our 15 year-old hot shots.
The photography was pretty good. 950 images; posted 210+ to website. (Satisfactory yield was pretty high -- near 40% -- but didn't post many shots with folks I didn't know.)
Stuck ISO at 800 except for in the best light where I shot 400. This let me work at 1/1250 and F8 +/- ... The cycling photography sweet spot for the 70-200 F4L seems to be F8 -- sharp and reasonable depth for the action. Bicycling seems to require about 1/1250 if you're not panning. I adjusted ISO to be near this sweet spot for action ... crowd/candid stuff generally gets about 1/320 ... higher if I want more bokeh. Got a couple nice race shots at about 1/320 while panning.
Lots of kids racing bikes, a number of good crowd (and friend) shots, and a couple odd dog and bug images. Enjoy.
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