The preparations for the Eurobike are in full swing and what of course shouldn’t be missing are the action photos of the brand new bikes. We chose the Dolomites as a backdrop for this year’s photo shooting. On Sunday morning we set off on the 800km journey from Koblenz to Cortina d`Ampezzo and the car was crammed full to the roof with 2011 equipment. The weather forecast for the entire week was pretty good and this created a good atmosphere in the entire team. After having not started up the mountain until around 8.00 a.m. on Monday morning, for the rest of the week my alarm clock was set for about 4.30 a.m. in the hope of catching the available early morning light. This worked quite well in most cases and gave rise to some atmospheric photos.
With the assistance of the Tourist Association in Cortina d`Ampezzo, which provided both the guides and authorisation for the photo shoot, we had the opportunity to make use of the prettiest spots in the whole region. An out-of-town visitor would hardly be able to find such spots and also wouldn’t be allowed to ride their officially.
After having shot the entire freeride and all mountain range in the Cinque Torri area on the first 3 days, the remainder of the week was taken up with the cross country and touring bikes. The Cinque Torri are 2361 metre high rock formations located between the Falzarego Pass and Cortina d`Ampezzo. These landmarks of the region consist of five steep towers, which in the past formed one gigantic boulder. The area 2000 metres above sea level offered wonderful trails. The pictures will give you all a little foretaste of what’s waiting for you at and after the Eurobike and also help you to picture just how breathtaking the landscape around the Cinque Torri really is.
Although I was responsible for supporting the Canyon Heroes (Rob-J, Tibor Simai und Stefan Herrmann), the bikes and the photo flash during the first few days, for the rest of the week I was finally allowed to swap my summer clothes for bike outfits. I’d been looking forward to this for nearly three months and could hardly wait to start chasing along the trails on the cross country bikes. I realised fairly rapidly that biking and being photographed on the bike are two very different things. Riding past the camera and at maintaining an appropriate facial expression and pedal position is no mean feat. However, after a short period of familiarisation everything worked quite well and was above all mega fun. This was certainly down to the atmosphere in the team as a whole because everybody really enjoyed what they were doing, even though my boss now and again had to take on my job as camera boy. :)
On the whole it was a very nice week although at certain times it was also strenuous with us having to get up so early. But hopefully we’ll have some very nice photos for the 2011 season.
You can all already start looking forward to the Eurobike because there you’ll be able to see the Pure Cycling TV Film about the photo shooting as well as getting information on the new 2011 bikes. This, together with the Making of Photos, will give you all a foretaste of what Canyon has to offer in 2011.
Philipp Becker
Intern in marketing
