Sunday, July 13, 2014

Criterion/Criterium Criteria? Dunno.


OK,  it's called the Indy Criterium.
That didn't seem right to me. I looked it up, 
got no results for that misspelled *criterium,*
but got criterion instead with a definition
that seemed apt: a standard by which something 
can be judged or decided. Whatever.
Attempting to meet a standard seemed to be
exactly what these cyclists were trying
to do when I saw them Saturday morning.
This group was participating in the 
Men Masters 40+/50+ Race, a 45-minute 
competition on a .95-mile course over 
the streets of  downtown Indy.


Over sixty men participated in this heat.
Led by a blue Mini Cooper, riders flew around
the hourglass-shaped course so quickly
that the Mini was really having to work to maintain
it own position as pace car, honking and 
beeping as it entered the intersections
to warn pedestrians of the approaching peloton.


The riders shown above quickly sprinted 
to a substantial lead over the rest of the field. 
I don't know whether they were able 
to maintain that dominance to the end because 
I left well before the race finished. But I wasn't able 
to leave before one of the leaders crashed, heavily, 
to the street. Winded and definitely injured, he was trying 
to help medical personnel tend to his wounds 
(a broken collarbone, at least?) as I left the area, the other 
cyclists speeding by as the race continued.


3 comments:

Jane Hards Photography said...

This is my kind of photography. Sport on two wheels. Great race shots,

William Kendall said...

Amazing shots, and very dynamic. You could have easily used these for the Movement theme day later in the year.

Speedway said...

Thank you, Jane. Thank you. William. My little camera isn't fast enough for action shots, really, so I set the focus on street markings and hoped for a few that were usable, if not sharply focused. I got those few shots, I think.

Jane, I did work as a photographer at the Indy 500 and the Brickyard 400 for about 20 years - one has to love action shots to have the patience to do that, and miss being able to use my old Canon F1. My little Canon SureShot is the best digital I've been able to do for replacement. It goes with me just about everywhere.