Category Archives: Racing

Emily Maye: Photographing Cycling from Behind the Scenes

Posted on October 22, 2012 by josh| 2 Comments


Self portrait. Photo courtesy of Emily Maye.

Cycling photographer Emily Maye is on the rise. Only a year and a half after shooting her first race photos at the Tour of California, she’s been published in cycling magazines such as Bicycling and Paved and worked for major brands such as Rapha, Bontrager-Livestrong development team, Crankbrothers and more. Emily is known for her strengths as a visual storyteller. Rather than only focusing on a race’s major climb or finishing sprint, she turns her lens on the drunken fans, the anxiety-filled race prep, the harrowed mechanics, to try and capture the entire atmosphere of a professional cycling event. In this interview, Emily discuses her background in photography, her attraction to professional cycling, the parallels between ballet and bike racing, her approach to storytelling, and more.

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Posted in Art, Interviews, Racing

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The Mysterious Nelson Vails Documentary

Posted on October 19, 2012 by josh| 1 Comment

Nelson Vails was the first African American cyclist to medal in the Olympics, making history when he won the Silver in the 1984 track sprint. Before his professional cycling career, he made his living as a bike messenger in New York, which earned him a role in the famed Kevin Bacon messenger movie Quicksilver. In short, he’s an awesome figure in cycling history. He’s also one of the featured athletes in a forthcoming documentary on African American cyclists called RIDE: In Living Color. Click here to read the recent interview with RIDE’s director Yolanda Davis-Overstreet.

A few weeks ago, a teaser for a Nelson Vails documentary was posted on youtube by user stephgauger1. It’s made the rounds on cycling blogs, but nobody seems to know who’s behind its production or anything about the film beyond the stated “2013” release date. In this day and age, a movie trailer without any accompanying information pretty much constitutes a mystery. But, a little Internet sleuthing reveals that stephgauger1 is Stephane Gauger. He is one of the two filmmakers involved in Cruzin’, about a ride former professional cyclist Tony Cruz did down the length of Vietnam.

I contacted Cruzin’s production company, One World Media Group for a little information on the Nelson Vails film. Cruizin‘s director Scott Nguyen responded. He said: “As of right now we’re still in the development phase for the documentary film. It basically outlines Nelson Vails life story, his trials and tribulations, etc. We are set to shoot the film in NYC this December for an April, 2013 release.”

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Posted in Cycling Media, Frame Builders, History, Racing

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Rising From the Ashes, the Team Rwanda Documentary

Posted on October 16, 2012 by josh| Leave a comment

Team Rwanda’s story is fascinating. Many of its founding members were young boys during their country’s horrific 1994 genocide. They’ve found redemption and success as professional cyclists competing on an international level. The team’s founder, Jock Boyer, was the first American to race in the Tour de France. He too found a form of redemption in the team after his life in the United States fell apart following his professional cycling career. The team, its stars, and its founder were the subject of a terrific New Yorker article that stands out as one of the best pieces of cycling-related writing out there.

Team Rwanda is now the subject of a new feature-length documentary, Rising From the Ashes. The film has been in the works for six years and brings to it the star-power of Forest Whitaker as Executive Producer and narrator. Like the New Yorker article, the film looks at the foundation of the Team, its standout riders, Jock Boyer, and, according to the film’s synopsis, uses them as a catalyst to explore the larger issues of Rwanda’s genocide and its aftermath. The trailer is excellent and I look forward to seeing the film.

Rising From Ashes from T.C. Johnstone on Vimeo.

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Posted in Cycling Media, Everything Else, Racing

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Yolanda Davis-Overstreet: Sharing the Story of African American Cyclists

Posted on October 9, 2012 by josh| 3 Comments

Yolanda Davis-Overstreet is the Director of the upcoming documentary RIDE: In Living Color. The film looks at African American cyclists through history from Major Taylor’s amazing achievements in sport to people using bikes to change their lives in present day. Most of the filming is complete and the RIDE team is currently raising money through an IndieGoGo campaign to help fund post-production work. I spoke to Yolanda about the film and its production, her background in cycling, media coverage of African American cyclists, barriers to entry in cycling for people of color, and more.

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Posted in Advocacy, Cycling Media, History, Interviews, Racing

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Meg Fisher: Montana’s Paralympic-winning, 6-time World Champion

Posted on September 19, 2012 by josh| 2 Comments


Photo from the Montanan.

Meg Fisher has six on and off-road triathlon World Championship titles, a slew of U.S. National Championship wins, and, as of a few weeks ago, a gold and silver medal in cycling from the 2012 Paralympics in London. In short, she’s a bad ass athlete. Given her palmarés, you might assume she’s been cycling since birth. But, Meg didn’t start her cycling career until several years after a tragic accident in 2002 that required doctors to amputate her left foot and claimed the life of her best friend. I spoke to Meg on her brief post-Paralympics stopover in Seattle (where she’s a physical therapy PhD candidate). We discussed her accident, her new found passion and talent for cycling and triathlon, the London Paralympics, balancing school and cycling, and more.

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Posted in Interviews, Mountain Biking, Racing

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