Friday Feature: The faces of the Giro

One of our regular VeloEyes, Davide Calabresi, was at the Giro last weekend and has shared some of his fantastic pictures with us. I really love Davide’s work – I think he gets to the heart of the sport by capturing so much expression on the cyclists’ faces. This set is no exception, especially Cav after his sprint win on stage 13 and that brutal stage 14 up to Jafferau. Enjoy! (All photographs ©Davide Calabresi)

Stage 13: Cav wins the sprint finish

Giro Stage 13 sprint CREDIT DAVIDE CALABRESI

Stage 13: Cavendish wins his 4th stage in this year’s Giro

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VeloEye Davide Calabresi: A Strade Bianche picture gallery

Last year, Sean Weide of BMC put us in touch with young Italian photographer Davide Calabresi – and what an auspicious day that was! Since then, he’s been a Friday Feature, sharing his evocative pictures of the Italian National Championships (one of which is currently our Facebook cover picture) and then later in the season sharing his view of Il Lombardia. Lucky for all of us, he was at Strade Bianche earlier this month and he takes us from start to finish … (All photographs ©Davide Calabresi.)

StradeB Vacansoleil

Crisp and clean and ready for the start

StradeB Glow signing

Mini tifosi getting an autograph from a Glow

StradeB Pozzato CREDIT DAVIDE CALABRESI

Big smiles from Franco Pellizotti

StradeB Cancellara signin CREDIT DAVIDE CALABRESI

Spartacus signs in

StradeB cadel bike CREDIT DAVIDE CALABRESI

The red and the black of BMC, plus the rainbow stripes of a former World Champion

StradeB motorbikes follow CREDIT DAVIDE CALABRESI

A view from behind the motorbikes

StradeB peloton CREDIT DAVIDE CALABRESI

The day starts out with a smile – or is that a grimace?

StradeB break3 CREDIT DAVIDE CALABRESI

The main breakaway: Michael Schar (BMC), Aleksejs Saramotins (IAM), Maxim Belkov (Katusha) and Giairo Ermeti (Androni Giocattoli)

StradeB Argonaut CREDIT DAVIDE CALABRESI

Even on the dusty Italian roads, the Argonaut whites are still sparkling

StradeB Schleck CREDIT DAVIDE CALABRESI

Let’s hope we see Andy Schleck smiling later on this season

Getting a helping hand

Getting a helping hand

'Look what I did!' Moser takes the win

“Look what I did!” Moser takes the win

'I'm lookin' at you!' The Velvet Samurai comes in second

“I’m lookin’ at you!” The Velvet Samurai comes in second

The podium for 2013 Strade Bianche

The podium for 2013 Strade Bianche: Peter Sagan and Moreno Moser (Cannondale) with 3rd place Rinaldo Nocentini (Ag2r)

StradeB podium2 CREDIT DAVIDE CALABRESI

His champagne bubbleth over

My favourite picture of the set: the champagne gets shared out

My favourite picture of the set: the champagne gets shared out

You can follow Davide on Twitter and visit his website.

10 wishes: Kitty Fondue

Cycling has taken quite a bashing this year so I thought it would be fun to get the VeloVoices crew as well as some of the people we’ve met and followed to give us their top ten wishes for the 2013 season. We’ll start with … me!

I am Kitty Fondue and I am a founding member of VeloVoices. My favourite races are the spring Classics, I love Fabian Cancellara to distraction, I have the regular Tuesday column of Tweets of the Week and I’m always on the lookout for photographers to profile for our Friday Features. I also do a lot of the live-tweeting of races on the weekends, where I try to commentate with humour and only a little bias but I tend to show my true colours at the end of races when I’m cheering someone onto the finish. Here are my wishes:

Wish 1: That Cancellara goes back to his winning ways

Wish 1: That Cancellara goes back to his winning ways

1. That the Classics season is one knock-down, drag-out fight after another between Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellara. And that they each win (and lose) with style and grace.

2. That the final nocturnal stage of the Tour de France in Paris is as fantastic as I imagine it to be and that VeloVoices has its own corner with tons of Twitter friends cheering the peloton on!

Wish 3: That SuperSagan provides the fireworks on the Champs (image courtesy of Roxanne King)

Wish 3: That SuperSagan provides the fireworks on the Champs (image courtesy of Roxanne King)

3. That Peter Sagan does his Incredible Hulk impersonation as he takes the Champs-Elysees sprint with bike lengths to spare!

4. That things are changed within the sport so we can be confident of clean, honest wins.

5. That people can express a like and dislike for whatever riders they want without being flamed on Twitter. And that people finally realise that using the c-word is not the way to win an argument or influence people. It’s not big and it’s not clever – it just makes you look stupid. And you know what? It’s just a bike race – there’s no need to eviscerate people for a difference of opinion.

6. That Bradley Wiggins says something and actually sticks to it, as opposed to saying the opposite the next day, crying “misquote!” or changing his mind three or four times in the course of a week. All this back and forth is just bullshit.

I'd love to see Marco Pinotti win the rainbow jersey for TT (image courtesy of Davide Calibresi)

Wish 7: Marco Pinotti exchanges his BMC jersey for a rainbow jersey (image courtesy of Davide Calabresi)

7. That Marco Pinotti wins the World Championships time trial in Florence. And that Fabian Cancellara wins the road race.

8. That I keep finding great photographers, like those I’ve used on this page – Danielle Haex, Roxanne King and Davide Calabresi – to interview for the blog.

9. That I get my picture taken with Greg Henderson and Adam Hansen – two of my faves!

10. That Panache gets a job in London so I can have lunch with him whenever the mood strikes and we can have regular VeloVoices meetings with all members in attendance!