Tour of California Stage 5

8" x 10" Oil on panel.

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Peter Sagan was the young star of the tour. This was his first score, but he had been close already. The real surprise came with his win the next day. I had to choose between this shot that shows the blinding sunshine of the day and one of his celebratory wheelies. He is still a kid (thus the white young rider leader jersey.)

From my point of view, I remember this as a hot day. Nice riding roads and we got to zip between the field and the break a couple of times. The finish was just plain hot, but the crowd was good and appreciated the race coming to Bakersfield.

Tour of California Stage 4

10" x 8" Oil on panel.

This view from Stage 4 catches the riders passing Jonathan Devich's camera. The shot captures a nice landscape with the road leading into the picture and curving into the distance. I am somewhat interested in seeing this as a larger landscape, but a detailed rendering of the riders would take quite a while. This painting departs from the others in the series since it doesn't crop the reference scene very much at all.

Stage 4 of the tour covered familiar roads with a nice variation. The start climbed out of San Jose on Sierra Road as in past years. The ride along the ridges on Calaveras Road is a lot of fun on a motorcycle. It is twisty without being overly technical since it is largely level. The stage continued down a different canyon than previous years on its way to Modesto. It seemed like we descended for more than on hour. We really got to work as the radio repeater was spotty in the canyon. It was a beautiful day and a challenge.

Tour of California Stage 3

8" x 10" Oil on panel.

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Stage 3 of the 2010 ATOC was just as decisive as expected. It ended with the final podium crossing the finish line together. This painting is from a crop of a Jonathan Devich photo of Levi and DZ. I was after capturing the intense sunshine especially through the shadow on the pavement. Most of the finish photos of the stage are overexposed from the bright pavement and capture a great moment where DZ almost loses to a bike throw. I most remember the moist rain forest climbs and California coastlines from that day, so there are a lot of choices to sum up the stage.

Even though we had wet pavement under the trees the weather was pleasant for stage 3. We had a pretty strange start with Garmin holding up the ending of the neutral section by changing bikes a couple of times. The race was finally stopped on the road to get things resolved. This was highly unusual and the Garmin mechanic actually pushed over a motoref bike while getting out of the team car! Justice was served through some fines and the fact that their delay caused the live coverage to end just before Zabriskie won the stage. Ironic Karma.

And yes, you may notice that I missed the Livestrong trim on Levi's left arm. I think I'll need to touch that up....:^)

Tour of California Stage 2

10" x 8" Oil on panel.

With this painting from Stage 2, I worked to get this guy's likeness without getting to detailed (i.e. "tight"). There are a lot of photos of this guy until he dropped out; he seems to attract attention. He also seems to be keeping his glasses in his helmet a lot this year so we can see the expression on his lean face. This is a tight crop from a Jonathan Devich photo.

As the timeboard team, my wife and I prepared for a rainy day all decked out in motorcycle raingear. We stayed dry at the start on Stage 2, but we knew the rain was coming. It was a wet day on the moto, but not as uncomfortable as in previous years. We were between the breakaway and the main field with Mike Friedman at the top of the second to last climb (as he successfully clawed his way back.) Things came together fast on the last climb and we moved ahead to clear out of the way. We descended gingerly as we listened to the reports of crashes behind us. The riders were also decked out in rain gear that they mostly wore to the finish. As you can see in this painting, Lance is wearing several layers.

Tour of California Stage 1

8" x 10" Oil on panel.
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While I was away from painting, I enjoyed working with friends at the Amgen Tour of California. I was lucky enough to be the timeboard driver this year. I thought I would work through a series of paintings based on the stages. Stage 1 gave us a beautiful day and ride from Nevada City to Sacramento. The script went according to plan with a breakaway that was caught. The field sprint ended with Mark Cavendish winning in his usual style.

Thanks to Casey Gibson for permission to use his photos as reference.