Sport through the lens

Sunday is last day before we hit the road, and drive to Varese, Italy, for UCI Road cycling World Championships. So Sunday is day for packing. Ok with all the traveling I have done, “day for packing” means 10 minutes for packing clothes, and another few minutes for packing all the equipment I will take with me. Main problem in this time of the year is weather. First Cycling World Championships I have covered was exactly four years ago in Verona, Italy. It was a bit cold here in Slovenia, and I wasn’t really ready for temperatures around +30c which were in Verona. So most of my summer clothes were left at home. Similar thing happened last year in Stuttgart, Germany, when most of my winter clothes were left at home, and first few days I was freezing on roadsides of Stuttgart.

It’s just so much easier to cover sport in winter or in summer. You know exactly what to expect, not like now, when it can be anything from rain and +5c to sun and +35c. But that’s one of things which make this much more interesting. So this time, I will pack a bit of everything, and I will hope for nice sunny kinda warm weather. Weather forecast for Varese is not really great, and it’s promising mostly normal weather during week, when there will be time trial races, but rain and cold for next weekend, when road races will took place. I hope weather forecast is wrong, and it won’t be raining, since it’s really not much fun to walk around for 7 hours in rain and cold.

For photo equipment, it’s pretty easy. For cycling I use just 3 lenses, so packing two 1dmk2, flash with external batteries, 17-40/4, 70-200/2.8 and 300/2.8 with both 1.4x and 2x converters, about 30 extra AA batteries doesn’t take much. Next to this I fit into bag my laptop, chargers for cameras, AA batteries, laptop, phone and ipod, and then whole bunch of cables for chargers, phone, computer, and not to forget security lock for laptop, which is left in press center during race. I believe all this is not even close to some impressive packing lists circulating around before Olympics in Beijing, but I know what I can expect on cycling races, so there’s no need to carry 3 cubic meters of equipment with me :)

But before I will start packing, I will still jump for short mtb ride. Based on weather in last week or so, it can quite easy be one of last ones in this season. It’s just not fun to sit on bike when it’s +12c. Afterall it’s not even that bad, since it means, winter season is here pretty soon, and I will be on skis again. Alpine skiing World cup starts at 25th of October already, and before that, I’m sure I will get day or two of skiing myself too. I have to get used to skis before I hit World Cup tracks with 15kg of photo equipment on my back. Good excuse to hit slopes on one of glaciers around here, right? :)

But first things first, and Varese with road cycling WCH are first to be done. I will try to write some more during WCH, but it will depend on time and my will. If nothing else, check our photos on Photo SI web and in newspapers around the world :)