Series of photo portraits shows impact of the cobbles on BMC cyclists

A new series of photographs on the Plan78.com website gives some sense of the impact of a day on the cobbles for a Tour rider. A portrait of each of BMC’s riders taken the day before the Tour began is set alongside another taken immediately after the cobbled stage to Cambrai. We think you’ll agree, the contrast is fairly marked.

“The best way to follow a race is on television, but to see the pain and teamwork, you need to be there,” says photographer Jeroen Halverstad. He says his aim was therefore to capture the pain and suffering of a day at the race. “That's where my fascination for cycling comes from; the suffering for your team mate regardless of your own goals or ambition.”

Halverstad says his favourite pair of photos is of Daniel Oss. “First of all, because he has sort of an epic expression there, with the tape and everything on his face. Besides that, he fell in the horror stage where everybody was on the ground, but this day he did an amazing job for Tejay van Garderen in getting him over the cobbles.”

Halverstad says he arrived to take Oss’s post-cobbles shot just a few seconds after the Italian had climbed off his bike after the stage. He could tell he was in real pain and says that what he had endured influences how he feels about that picture. “I think that's real sportsmanship. Of course that doesn't make the effort of the others any less, but that's my personal favourite.”