You can crush yourself on the cobbles too!

Inspired by yesterday's wild Tour de France stage over the cobbles? Ams. can ride them too. Some of my photos of non-TDFers testing the pavé before the TDF.

Read more at my blog post @ National Geographic Adventure.



Paris Roubaix Cyclo - Images by Gregg Bleakney

Espresso – Pasta – Climb Hard – Gelato - Repeat

For the past two weeks, I’ve been hanging in what I can only describe as a road cyclist’s Never Never Land—a cobbled village in the Italian Alps with 2 bakeries, 3 handmade pasta slingers and no internet.  With world-class climbs from the Giro out the front door in every direction, my toughest decision every morning has been “what next?”  The 48 hairpin turns of the 9,050 foot Stelvio Pass, the agonizingly steep Motirolo that spirals up 4,265 feet in just over 7 miles, the sublime tarmac that twists through crisp alpine vistas along Gavia Pass, or a rip roaring 50 mph descent off the backside of Paso Aprica.  At some stage I’ll be writing an article about this so I’ll cut off my words now and let a few images do the talking.

Co-Motion Advertisement

Co-Motion introduced a 26 inch super-dope version of their Americano expedition touring bike called the "Pangea."  I'm psyched that they are using some of my images from Patagonia for the 2010 ad campaign.

Paris Roubaix Cyclo for Weekend Warriors

The Paris Roubaix is one of my fav. events in pro cycling.  Once every two years, the route opens to euro-weekend warriors who want to experience what the pros have dubbed "The Hell of the North." The 260 km route travels over 50-80 kms of arse-numbing cobblestones. 

I made photos of my buddy Horst and his Swiss cycling posse during the weekend warrior/Cyclo ride this past Sunday and think that I learned every four-letter word in the Spanish, German, French, Italian, etc, etc, dictionaries while shooting a famously cobbled Le Carrefour de l'Arbre section.  It was a great event to watch and something that I'd recommend highly to those who really want to beat the hell out of themselves on two-wheels.  Those cobbles put a serious hurt on participants.

Salsa Touring Bike Advertising Campaign

A photo of G-Mack spinning through the hills of Vietnam along the Ho Chi Minh Highway near the border of Laos and another off the coast of South Kroea are being used for Salsa Cycles advertising campaign for their new lineup of touring bikes...check these rides out--the Salsal Fargo and the Salsa Vaya. 

Work in Print - Adventure Cyclist Magazine

Adventure Cyclist Magazine featured quite a bit of my photography in last month's issue.  Topics included: rain gear evaluation for touring cyclists written by Zen master of all things that are balance and rain (or balance in the rain in this particular feature), Scott McCredie--check out his killer book on human balance here), how to ship bicycles written by Dan d' Ambrosio, and a piece I wrote with some tips on how to photograph cycling and specifically bicycle tours.

India - VeloNews Feature - The Bombay Project

The UCI's new race in Bombay, India is featured via an article I wrote in VeloNews Magazine's May issue.
In Bombay, I photographed the piece with some nice digs to retreat to @ the end of the day but nearly broke my worst hotel record a week later when I pulled an all-nighter to write the article in a rat infested, sewage seeping on the bathroom floor, ceiling fan dangling from exposed wires, crumbling walls, $3 per night room next to the New Delhi train station.
This assignment kicked off an amazing journey through India for which I've mused about in more detail as a guest on National Geographic's Adventure Blog and the back cover shot for Outside Magazine.
VeloNews also ran a double page photo-feature from the article I wrote on the Vuelta Colombia in last year's volume.

Here's a few clips: