Return of the mountain goat

With a reputation to uphold (that of a mountain goat with climbing ropes for legs) my first location shooting the Giro was up a tree. Quite a way up a tree.

My tree had been recently pruned (quite aggressively actually), so I was finding it difficult to blend in and avoid being noticed. It wasn’t long before a passing polizia moto spotted me and called out. However, instead of telling me to get down he simply smiled and kept yelling ‘Panda’ (I would have gone with ‘Koala’ personally).

Hitting the bricks

Heading into stage one I had ambitiously planned to shoot at three locations, plus the start and finish. This was going a give Stuntman Mike a crash course, hopefully without the crash, in Giro driving 101.

Beardy vs the snake

Stop two was overlooking Castelsardo and a spot on the hill. However, what our research couldn’t have shown was a building site opposite our chosen spot. It was the perfect angle looking back on the castle, even if I had to dodge a snake slithering across to concrete on the way in.

Bonus bidons

The road to the next location was hilarious, with not a single section of flat or straight road for over 60kms. Mike earned his stripes and we arrived with minutes to spare and a couple of the rider’s discarded bidons collected along the way.

Mixed emotions

A successful, if not a little disappointing, finish to the stage; I was hoping to be bringing you images of Caleb Ewan in the Maglia Rosa but it was not to be, with Lukas Pöstlberger crashing the party.

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