{"id":481740,"date":"2026-02-17T23:37:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T23:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/481740\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T23:37:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T23:37:17","slug":"bike-racing-in-hell-photographing-in-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/481740\/","title":{"rendered":"Bike racing in hell \u2013 photographing in heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                        <img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Santa-Vall_Cover.jpg\" alt=\"Santa Vall 2026: Bike racing in hell \u2013 photographing in heaven\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"article__sub-title\">A heaping dose of inclement conditions at the photographer&#8217;s first foray into documenting gravel racing.<\/p>\n<p>                                <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Harry Talbot\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"author__photo lazy \" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/WhatsApp-Image-2025-06-03-at-11.04.09.jpeg\" width=\"99\" height=\"99\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Harry Talbot<\/p>\n<p>I could hear the rain outside. It made me happy, likely one of the only people in Girona who felt that way on the Friday afternoon before Santa Vall, a race that not even a year ago I would\u2019ve known. I shoot the road racing calendar and I love those races. I\u2019ve dismissed gravel racing far too often in the past, looking down on bike racers going through peanut butter mud in rural Kansas while I\u2019m standing roadside in the Dolomites waiting for WorldTour riders to pass by at the Giro d\u2019Italia. Why would I want to be photographing gravel, right?<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re like me, maybe you also didn\u2019t know that Santa Vall is a two-stage race [the kick-off event of <a href=\"https:\/\/gravelearthseries.com\/?ref=escapecollective.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gravel Earth Series<\/a>] over a Saturday and Sunday, racing over the technical, steep, yet beautiful gravel surrounding Girona, Spain. Was I excited to shoot this race when I was asked a handful of weeks back? Honestly, no. Why? I suppose it felt small \u2013 for lack of a better word \u2013 no new WorldTour kits, not many fans, bike racers I didn\u2019t know, and trails I wasn\u2019t familiar with. <\/p>\n<p><a class=\"kg-bookmark-container\" href=\"https:\/\/escapecollective.com\/behind-the-lens-shooting-the-finestre\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>Behind the lens: Shooting the Finestre<\/p>\n<p>One of the greatest mountains in cycling had a dramatic impact on one of the sport\u2019s photographers.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/harry-talbot-finestre-9727-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" onerror=\"this.style.display = 'none'\"\/><\/a><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Santa-Vall-2026_Talbot-18.jpg\" class=\"kg-image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1757\"  \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Santa-Vall-2026_Talbot-16.jpg\" class=\"kg-image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1341\"  \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Santa-Vall-2026_Talbot-24.jpg\" class=\"kg-image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1503\" height=\"2000\"  \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Santa-Vall-2026_Talbot-12.jpg\" class=\"kg-image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1548\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>I hoped for a lot of dry dust, which always makes for nice photos, and that I&#8217;d take mud and rain. I got the latter, lots of it. It made me happy. I felt like I was photographing the 2021 Paris-Roubaix when Sonny Colbrelli won. That was one I didn\u2019t shoot. I wish I had. But it was before my time. I guess you don\u2019t always need big-name WorldTour riders to make a good photo; Instagram has warped my mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, I called this article Bike racing in hell \u2013 photographing in heaven. Let me tell you why.<\/p>\n<p>            This post is for paying subscribers only<br \/>\n            <a class=\"gh-btn\" data-portal=\"signup\" href=\"#\/portal\/signup\" style=\"color:#FF6F42\">Subscribe now<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Already have an account? <a data-portal=\"signin\" href=\"#\/portal\/signin\">Sign in<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                Did we do a good job with this story?<\/p>\n<p class=\"reactions\" data-post-id=\"6994ab6f84f1ba82cfc20e4d\">\n                    \ud83d\udc4dYep<br \/>\n                    \ud83d\udc4eNope\n                <\/p>\n<p class=\"tags\">\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/escapecollective.com\/tag\/culture\/\" title=\"Culture\" class=\"tag tag-67a677ae0c7ad49bf4f2910d culture\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Culture<\/a><br \/>\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/escapecollective.com\/tag\/santa-vall\/\" title=\"Santa Vall\" class=\"tag tag-698cc92e84f1ba82cfc0c7f0 santa-vall\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Santa Vall<\/a><br \/>\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/escapecollective.com\/tag\/gravel-earth-series\/\" title=\"Gravel Earth Series\" class=\"tag tag-698cc3ed84f1ba82cfc0c75b gravel-earth-series\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gravel Earth Series<\/a><br \/>\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/escapecollective.com\/tag\/gravel\/\" title=\"Gravel\" class=\"tag tag-67a677ae0c7ad49bf4f29201 gravel\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gravel<\/a>\n                <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A heaping dose of inclement conditions at the photographer&#8217;s first foray into documenting gravel racing. Harry Talbot I&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-481740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}