Welcome to Moab

Klondike-BabySteps, originally uploaded by Andy Waterman.

So, I've arrived in Moab. I'm here by myself, so all I've really got to do is ride my bike, take photos and mess about on the internet at the hotel. It's so hot here that afternoons are too hot to ride so I'm limited to riding first thing in the morning and again in the evening. This morning I rode Klondike Bluffs trail and then followed that into the more technical, and more exposed Baby Steps trail. Baby Steps was so much fun - I bet that if you know it, it is super fast. For me though, I was pretty slow. A lot of the singletrack is over big white rocks, with painted arrows to follow, which is great, but obviously becomes harder to follow the faster you go.
I shot a whole bunch of photos, of me, by me. I might do a post about it at some point as it's working out easier than I expected.

Utah Aspen Sunset

Utah Aspen blur, originally uploaded by Andy Waterman.

And another. I just discovered www.pixlr.com which is an online photo editing tool. I've only got a little netbook so it's not really got the power to edit 18mp images, but Pixlr seems to do a pretty good job. It's not CS5, but for levels, curves and resizing it seems pretty good.

Aspen

Anyone with an interest in MTB photography will have seen photos by the likes of Sterling Lorence of amazing Aspen Forests in places like Utah and Colorado. It's not till you get into the Aspens that you realise how photogenic it is - it grows really tight creating a great sense of depth. This is a shot of Mike Cotty from yesterday at the Canyons Resort near Park City.
Today I'm driving down to Moab, I'm guessing it's going to be a fair bit different to this.

Park City, Utah

We're in downtown Park City. Nice place, beautiful evening, originally uploaded by Andy Waterman.

I'm still in Park City, Utah, riding new 2011 Cannondale bikes around the Canyons Resort. The weather's turned out great, the bikes are good and the riding is really nice too - there's 350 miles of municipal singletrack at our disposal apparently.
The one bad thing is the altitude: it's killing me. Check out the stats from Sunday's ride - horrific.

Less shooting, less blogging, more riding

I've not been doing much other than riding and writing over the last couple of weeks. I have however dscovered the geeky joy of Garmin Connect so now I can bore everyone across the internet with my boring training data. This is from last night's Dulwich chaingang — four of us smashing each other's brains out on the roads of Kent. HARD WORK! I'm drained and hungry now the day after. If I do some interesting riding I'll share them here. Next week I'm off to Moab — that should create something a bit more interesting!

Tour Series — Canary Wharf

CanaryWharfWEB1, originally uploaded by Andy Waterman.

These are a couple of pics from the Tour Series race  Canary Wharf last night. I shot some stuff for Cycling Weekly which will hopefully be appearing in next week's issue. Grab a copy if you want to see more!
It was a funny old race on a boring circuit, and I can't say it was that enjoyable to watch but I'll reserve judgment till I see it on TV.
What was interesting is just how much cycling has gained mainstream appeal, especially amongst monied City Boys. There were plenty out watching and my insiders at Evans Cycles tell me the store in Canary Wharf had one of its best days ever on Tour Series day. The bike biz is booming.
Top shot is lit with two flashes, one high rght, one low left. Bottom shot is 70-200 with a too low shutter speed.

CanaryWharfWEB2, originally uploaded by Andy Waterman.

Secret Suburban Singletrack

Croydon might be a dump in a lot of ways, but the singletrack is surprisingly good, originally uploaded by Andy Waterman.

Working in Croydon might lack the glamour of working in central London, (not that you become a mountain bike journalist for the glamour or to work in a swanky office), but what the town centre lacks in charm it almost makes up for with secret suburban singletrack. It's not amazing by any means but for a blast after work on the singlespeed, it's perfect. You wont find trails like these between central London and where I live in Dulwich either.

More secret suburban singletrack - on my way to work, late, as usual, originally uploaded by Andy Waterman.