Why is the US cross scene so much cooler than the UK's?

Saw this over on bianchista — I wish more talented photographers and film makers would show up to UK races and shoot stuff like this. C'mon where are you?

Cross Crusade Race #4 PIR from Burk Webb on Vimeo.

More shots for Condor Cycles

I shot another bunch of photos for Condor last Friday and the first are beginning to appear on the interwebs now - eg the new World Series of which this is one have been on Bikeradar and Bianchista today, together with half a dozen of my shots.
This one was shot behind Mount Pleasant Post Office on a sunny autumn morning, and I used one flash to camera left to lift the shadows a bit and pop the silver bits on the bike.

Eastern League, Essex

Day 47 - cross, originally uploaded by CJ Boom.

Fourth place today. Bit of a shame as I was in the lead group most of the race but got course tape wrapped up in my wheel with two laps to go and had to stop and untangle it. I lost 35secs on the other two guys who were racing for second in that incident. I pulled back 20secs over the last couple of laps, but it wasn't enough. At least I have this photo of me leading the race.

Manfrotto Magic Arm + Bikes

Had a play today with MBR's magic arm. Seemed pretty easy to get good results to me. Processing's a bit ott on this, I'm still playing around with Lightroom, enjoying it though, it's a really good tool.

National Cyclocross Rankings

National Rankings, originally uploaded by Andy Waterman.

As of this morning I am the 12th ranked cyclocross racer in the country. I know that the ranking system is somewhat skewed with wildly varying levels of points being offered at seemingly comparable events, but hey, that's not my fault, and I'm pretty chuffed with the current situation.
That ranking was helped by my scoring a second second place of the season on Sunday at the London League at Herne Hill. An incredible 150 riders started the senior race, showing just how popular cyclocross is becoming, especially when the racing is held at a venue as accessible as Herne Hill.
My race was pretty uneventful really, which is why I got such a good result. I didn't crash, I didn't have any mechanicals, I just plugged away and eventually found myself in second place, while the guys around me were falling off, smashing their bikes up and flatting.
Phil Jones made this silent movie of the race. There are quite a few comical moments in their if you've got the patience to sit through it all.

Condor Cycles, London - New Site, Timelapse Videos by me

My friends at Condor Cycles have just launched their new shop website, and it looks great. They've used a bunch of the photos that I shot for them last week, and there's also some new videos on there that I produced. The first video here was shot in the store to show how the bike fitting jig works. I shot it with my 7D and 30D using a Canon timelapse remote shutter release (which I subsequently lost on a trail in Utah, bugger) and wide aperture lenses. I then put all the shots together to play back at 8fps for this timelapse. I like the result, and thankfully, so do Condor (this is has even picked up a couple of staff picks on Vimeo — I'm happy with that).

Bike Fitting - Condor Cycles from Condor Cycles on Vimeo.
The second video is a re-edit of one I made last year about wheelbuilding. Condor build their own wheels so it seemed like a good fit. I love that I managed to get an Elliot Smith song onto it too — best singer/songwriter ever in my opinion.

Wheel Building - Condor Cycles from Condor Cycles on Vimeo.

Think this kind of thing would look good on your website? Give me a shout!

Videos from Abergavenny Cyclocross

Andy in Abergavenny from Kevin Knox on Vimeo.