A Chaotic Day In The Life Of The Photographers At The Tour de France

CHALON-SUR-SAÔNE, France — Roughly 15 minutes after driving past the start line, Harry Talbot decides it's time to pull over next to a field of droopy sunflowers.

He scouted the route of Stage 11 of the Tour de France kilometer by kilometer earlier this year on Google Street View to identify potential spots where he and his fellow photographers could set up their shots, and we'd arrived at the first of the day.

To my eye, the sunflower field is perfect.

To https://www.instagram.com/visualsofharry/?hl=en">Talbot, https://www.instagram.com/z_w_photography/?hl=en">Zac Williams, and https://www.instagram.com/friesoooooo/?hl=en">Max Fries, it is pretty clearly lacking.

Talbot explains that he doesn't like the background of scrubby oaks on the far side of the field. "The sunflowers are nicely spaced, but the road isn't high enough to layer the shot," Williams observes. "It's not shit, but it's not a banger." They won't do.

We drive on.

I spent Stage 11 embedded with the trio of photographers.

Williams and Talbot https://open.spotify.com/show/1E1spqhhgnY2FEFsvjHPKW">host the Race Chasers podcast together, and they're shooting for a handful of clients: some bike sponsors, some teams, some apparel brands.

Fries works for Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe; while the other two photographers are targeting several dozen riders, he's only shooting eight.

That's a limitation, rather than an advantage. "You only have eight possibilities," Fries said. "Yesterday on the climb, they were hidden in the group."