Why is it that mostly women are featured on these pages as VeloEyes? We’ve featured work by Roz Jones, Danielle Haex, Roxanne King – and now Francesca Starbuck. Francesca went to stage five of the Tour of Britain earlier this month. (It was an eventful stage, starting and finishing in Stoke. Mark Cavendish started in the gold leader’s jersey and finished 12 minutes down with Bradley Wiggins, who subsequently abandoned overnight, while UnitedHealthcare’s Marc de Maar launched a successful solo break late on to take the stage victory.) She came back with some great pictures – especially of Ladies’ Favourite™ Bernie Eisel. Here is her gallery …
A wink and a smile

Lounging about at the start of the race, Bernie Eisel catches a glimpse of Francesca’s camera (Rob Hayles is lurking in the background…)

“Bernie, Bernie, can you hear me? What is it that makes all the ladies go wild for you?” “Leave me alone Rob, I’m trying to look brooding for the camera.”
Blending in

As with most races, fans can get up close to the buses and the riders before the race. Here, Fabio Sabatini almost blends in with his team bus!
Over the finish line

The elegant Mr Basso was named the stage’s most combative rider and he goes to get his Rouleur prize of a big wheel of cheese. I believe it was something like ash-covered goat’s cheese for this stage …

The gold jersey went from Cavendish to Orica’s Leigh Howard on this stage. He didn’t get any cheese.
All images are © Francesca Starbuck. Follow Francesca on Twitter – she’s a hoot! Thanks for sharing your album, Francesca!
Good to see one of our young members in the photo too
Funny, John, I noticed that when I was putting that together last night! 🙂