2025 Portugal DH Cup 1 - Seia
2025 Portugal DH Cup 1 - Seia
5689 images of the event available here
1/20th of a second, F4.5, ISO 50, manual focus, 28mm
Precursor
In 2008/2009 the UK hosted one of the world's best Downhill Mountain Bike race series (The National Point Series). The best athletes in the world would fly in to race the series and whilst that was good for spectators, Brits racing perhaps thought otherwise. You see to race the World Cups - the premier international series -, you needed enough UCI points. These points were handed out to the top 15 riders of a national series event. Because the worlds best were competing in the UK national series, lots of Brits struggled to get enough UCI points from racing their own series and had to venture far afield. Typically this would be pre-season (March/Early April) with popular destinations being Pamporovo in Bulgaria, Vigo in Spain and the Portuguese series. These entry fields didn't quite have the same calibre of rider meaning it would be easier to get points.
With recent changes to qualifying for World Cups, riders are once again back to chasing UCI points. The only thing different this time is that everyone, including the best in the world, are chasing points.
Friday Sign On & Track Walk
1/20th of a second, F4.5, ISO 50, manual focus, 28mm
The vast majority of international Downhill events I cover have practice on a Friday. What is strange to me is that this isn't the case with the Portuguese national series. That means Friday is a fairly quiet day in terms of action having only the track walk taking place. A couple of uplift trucks were provided and I managed to get on the first one. Quite important I get there first as I have to be ahead of the athletes to be able to get them head on looking at sections and assessing lines. Now I don't normally shoot track walks, I find them boring to document. I went up anyway as there was potentially an opportunity to cover the event for a team I'd had done work for previously. Unfortunately, the numbers were a little off so I didn't end up providing coverage, but it was worth going just in case.
1/20th of a second, F4.5, ISO 50, manual focus, 28mm
Regarding the track, if you put a drone up this year and took a photo and did the same last year, it would be identical. The exact same route, again this is peculiar as most venues change the route of the track from year to year. From speaking with the organiser, they aren't allowed for the route to deviate. This all stems back to them not actually having permission to build the track in the first place, but they were allowed to keep it there on the grounds that the scale of the landscaping they had undertaken turned the area into a nice place.
What they are allowed to do, however, is change the features. Jumps made bigger, berms either increased in size or removed fully leading to either a whole load of grip or none whatsoever. One thing that didn't change was the temperament of the track, old school, wide open, flat out! It's a stunning backdrop for an event.
Something new for me this year is having a rollout banner. This one is cycling-specific containing a big QR code at the top along with a selection of different cycling images. I take this to each race now and put it up next to rider sign-on. It's perfect really as typically the riders have to queue for a while to sign on and with the QR code being so big, it's easy to scan even from the back of the line. Not only can the riders look for photos of themselves from previous races whilst they wait, they can also bookmark the page so they know where to get images from the current race. This was set up first thing on Friday (as they were still installing the finish gantry) a few hours before sign-on started.
Saturday Practice
1/1600th of a second, F3.2, ISO 50, manual focus, 85mm
After the heavy rain of early Friday evening followed by a freeze overnight, the sun soon shone through the trees. Thawing the crunch crispy grass under foot of the race pits soft in no time whatsoever. Whilst direct sunlight was very warm, as pictured above melting the ice on the solar panel, in the shade it was freezing!
1/1000th of a second, F2.5, ISO 50, Autofocus, 135mm
The above sums things up well, a brand new track getting ridden in in glorious light by one of the first riders of the day Spain's Adrian Padin, whilst a well wrapped up elite rider walks the track waiting for their session to start at 11:00.
1/1000th of a second, F4, ISO 200, manual focus, 44mm
Spain's Under 17 3rd place finisher Mario Gonzalez getting up to race pace very quickly hitting the same turn hard early on. Photography wise, sometimes you just have to settle with what you can get. The camera was on remote, but due to how the track was laid out, the b line was a whole separate part of the track. In the foreground on the right you can see the edge of the tape marking where the track rejoins the main line. Ideally, I wanted the remote in line with the lape on the lower right of the image. This was so I could have shot wide, got the rider a decent size in the frame but would have been able to show more of the backdrop. As it was, I had to have the camera a good 15 meters farther back. Yes, you do get more of a foreground transition blur leading to the rider, but because you're more zoomed in, it compresses the rider more with the background.
1/1000th of a second, F4, ISO 200, manual focus, 39mm
A shot I normally wouldn't go with, Portugal's Vitor Martin sending the first of the big step-downs. Due to the uplift situation, there were waves of 50 riders all at once then no one for 10-15 minutes. In one of the gaps I moved down to this location and just as I was moving, there was an influx of riders (TYPICAL!) so I quickly planted the remote camera and ran a good bit to the right of the photo to get a pan shot as my main angle. On the next lul, I ran back over to check what the shot looked like, I wasn't happy with the angle due to a high vis in the background and the way the tape leads your eye to the wrong place so, again, quickly moved it into a better position.
1/1000th of a second, F5, ISO 50, manual focus, 85mm
This was that angle, France's Elite rider Benoit Coulanges, Shot in portrait as the main angle was a landscape pan. I chose to have the rider positioned right at the top leaving 2/3rds of the bottom image with not much going on. This is intentional because regardless of the use, commercial or editorial, you can use the 2/3rd space for text/image content. If the rider wanted an image to go as the background for the Instagram story and have a post embedded in the story towards the bottom, this would be perfect.
1/25th of a second, F11, ISO 50, manual focus, 53mm
This was the main angle I was going for. The same moment in time with France's Benoit Coulanges only this at 1/25th of a second to get a nice bit of motion in the image due to the speed he was going and the smoothness of soaring through the air. The high vis, 2 guys in the middle and the guy on the left annoy me but it's not a photoshoot, it's a race weekend. If you wanted it for commercial you could photoshop them out, but, I shoot editorial, them people were there so they stay. The good thing about finally being able to shoot on the 24-70 again - after MONTHS of waiting for Canon Europe to get the parts in to repair it (eventually got it done in Australia despite them not recognising CPS UK membership) - is the fact that's the only lens i have a polarizing filter for. Very handy for making the sky pop and preventing the leaves from blowing out.
1/1000th of a second, F3.2, ISO 50, manual focus, 85mm
A little further down the track was the biggest feature of the weekend, a flat-out section into a roadgap landing sharply into a 90-degree left-hander. Pictured Britain's Rueben Taylor just outside the top 10 Quickest times of the weekend in 12th place with a 2:20.122. Whilst this was a remote camera shot, I shot this as a main image. I had planned this shot for my own social media usage an Instagram story. Rider almost at the very top so that your username doesn't get in the way. A link smack bang in the middle to the gallery of images on my website. The Instagram post embedded in the story filling the bottom 3rd. Not only that, but because my images are full resolution, they can be cropped in, meaning if you wanted to, you could make the above image landscape instead of portrait and it would still make a good shot.
1/1000th of a second, F2.8, ISO 200, manual focus, 55mm
Seldom do I shoot my backup shot with my camera in hand, it's usually always a remote. The reason is that you can never rely on a remote camera to fire so you use it as a backup (You can read how I thought that happened to me here). In this instance though, there wasn't a cat in hells chance i was leaving a remote camera in this location. The above shot of Ireland's race winner Oisin O'Callaghan is the reverse of the picture of Rueben. As I said above, this was an absolutely mental fast part of the track with rocks flying everywhere and no catch berms leading the odd rider to drift off track at pace. Rather than write a camera off, I thought I'd lie down there and get the shot. Worst case scenario, James Bond roll... As a backup image, it ended up being a nice landscape. Good leading lines with the track tape and good subject separation from the rather nice backdrop.
1/1000th of a second, F2.8, ISO 125, manual focus, 44mm
Italy's Loris Revelli perfectly demonstrates what I meant about rocks flying everywhere! Fortunately, after dodging a few stones, I realised if I stayed committed, I could make a good shot out of it, just a shame the tape is in the foreground. I could have manually moved it, but unlike others, I won't alter the track markings just to get a photo. Not long after the above shot, it was time to head down the hill for the 1 hour dinner break, not that there was much of a break. A handful of locals who had their own transport were sneakily getting their own shuttles in on what was supposed to be a closed track.
1/40th of a second, F11, ISO 50, manual focus, 15mm Fisheye
After a quick ingest of the morning's images, it was time to get back on the uplift, ready for the afternoon's practice session. One thing I wasn't expecting was to be sharing the uplift with Matt Simmonds (Pictured on the right). Yes, I know what your thinking. No, it isn't a pirate hat... My nose is huge and always gets sunburned, as I cant run a cap as it gets in the way of shooting with a camera, I run this bad boy.
1/320th of a second, F2.8, ISO 640, autofocus, 115mm
To digress a little, just before the event started on the Thursday, I'd just completed uploading the gallery of images from Vigo Bike Contest some 15 years ago (Gallery here). Pictured above is the same Matt Simmonds racing back in 2010. I'd thought he had retired from racing, which was correct but he was saying how he now works for Cube, a manufacturer and they fly him around the world to races to help the athletes. The uplift is only 10-15 minutes but it was nice to have a catch-up, he's now running Caersws Bike Park which is good to hear, they always used to have good tracks.
1/1000th of a second, F5, ISO 400, manual focus, 135mm
2 Elite riders stood out for me on Saturday's practice due to sheer speed and the quietness with which they rode. Team mates Thibaut Daprella and pictured above Simon Chapelet. As you can see, fully banked over, on rails around the 90-degree left-hander that immediately followed the stepdown pictured earlier. Ideally, I'd have loved to have shot this handheld at F2.0 as there's only one of me though I have to look for multiple angles so F5 it was on remote.
1/25th of a second, F9, ISO 50, manual focus, 16mm
This is why the other shot had to be on remote, I wanted this image as well and there isn't a system I know of that can automatically pan to track a rider. Finlands Kasper Hickman, one of the Cube team riders Matt Simmonds was looking after.
1/1600th of a second, F5.6, ISO 400, manual focus, 15mm fisheye
Perigo, Perigo, high voltage, when we touch... I love this angle. As you come out the turn pictured before the above image, it's a flat out gradual turn left onto this, a stepdown into a sweeping right berm. With a 15mm fisheye you get the jump, the landing, the full corner, a good bit of landscape on the opposite hill with the rider dominating the frame. What you don't get however is the riders number, somewhat of an issue when it comes to knowing which rider is which in a field of over 350 athletes.
1/1250th of a second, F2.5, ISO 100, autofocus, 135mm
The same place, but from head-on. Spain's Hector Quinteiro looking like he's been shot out of a canon. Technically, it is a difficult shot for the camera as the blue sky is extremely bright in comparison to the front of the rider which is heavily shaded. What makes it more of a challenge for the camera is that because you have to shoot at a fast shutter speed to freeze the very quick action, you have to increase the ISO which means you have the reduce the dynamic range (the ability to keep the detail in both the bright areas and the dark areas). When it comes to editing you have less information to work with.
1/1250th of a second, F2.8, ISO 1250, autofocus, 300mm
1/1250th of a second, F2.2, ISO 400, manual focus, 135mm
Another 2 shots of Brit Rueben Taylor in the same instance of time. You can see in the first image in the lower left, how steep the gradient of the hill is, which gives perspective on the second shot on how much of a catch berm it is. For image one I wanted a nice tight crop and a decent bit of foreground for the perception of depth. The second is wanted wide in case there was any action (think rocks and dirt flying everywhere), I know 135 isn't exactly wide but in comparison to 300mm on image one...
1/200th of a second, F2.8, ISO 2500, manual focus, 15mm fisheye
As the practice session was coming to an end on Saturday afternoon, the heavens opened so I decided to call the day of shooting there with only 15 minutes left. I cheekily decided to get an uplift down to save becoming a drowned rat, didn't really work though as you can tell by the raindrops on the lens hood bottom right. What you may notice in the lower centre of the image is 4 empty green glass bottles... That's right 5 and drive. Immediately upon entering the uplift driver offered me a Heineken out of the coolbox behind his seat. Turns out he'd been on the drink all day doing uplifts, I actually found this a lot funnier than it probably was.
Sunday Racing
1/800th of a second, F2.8, ISO 50, autofocus, 24mm
What a start to the day looking down onto the low-lying cloud. Again I was the first off the uplift at 07:55. 08:00 when practice was supposed to start Matt Simmonds pointed out there were no officials to be seen so everyone got to take in the views for 20 minutes before the first bike on course at 08:21.
1/1000th of a second, F2, ISO 160, autofocus, 135mm
This section of track, pretty much where the course begins if your a photographer, if you're a rider however, you could have lost the race by here. The very top section was poor to photograph so didn't bother, lots of peddling, simple berms, barely any gradient. From speaking with a few riders though, a lot of time could be lost there.
1/1000th of a second, F3.5, ISO 50, autofocus, 15mm fisheye
Sunday was supposed to have 2 hours of practice from 08:00 to 10:00 followed by an exclusive practice session for the top 20 riders for 30 minutes. Due to the late start the top 20 sessions was scrapped, except this wasn't really communicated.
1/1000th of a second, F2, ISO 50, manual focus, 135mm
I'd set up on the first tabletop on the middle of the track as it's a great spot to get 2 angles on. The first, a head on shot with a fisheye, showing the full speed tun into it and the race plate (for knowing which rider is which). The second pictured above, a long leading straight with a not bad backdrop. Most importantly, if there was a jump on the track where the riders would lay down some style, it would be here. A mistake was made here by me, instead of keeping my eye on the time, i just kept on shooting, thinking when i start to see the top 20, it would be soon time to move. There were no top 20 riders which meant that what i thought was a slow start to the session was infact the break and qualifying was just about to start.
1/60th of a second, F4.5, ISO 50, pre-focus, 15mm fisheye
As I made a mistake I ended up having to run down to this section as soon as i realised qualifying had started missing a handful of the first riders. I had a specific shot I wanted from qualifying and this was it. Pictured Mikayla Parton laying down the quickest female qualifying time meaning she would be the last woman down the hill come race time. She later went on to win the event by over 5 seconds!
1/1000th of a second, F2.8, ISO 800, manual focus, 135mm
7th in qualifying for Max Hartenstern going on to 5th place in the final a smidge over 3 seconds back from the winner. This is the same location as the Mikayla Parton shot above it, only shooting long on remote. The position of the rider on the bike leaning into the left-hand corner whilst going off a drop, very much race style.
1/1000th of a second, F4.5, ISO 320, autofocus, 15mm
1/1000th of a second, F2, ISO 100, autofocus, 135mm 575574330
I'm sort of torn about the above 2 images, but I'll use them as they tell a story of the MTB race scene in Portugal. First, Portugal's Manuel Santos has an enormous crash going into the second to last turn with the crowd watching on. Second, Spaniard Roi Diaz hits the deck hard, exiting the steep chute through the trees and entering the final section of the track. The issue is, in Portugal, there aren't many regional races where you can develop your skills. For a lot of kids, their first race is a national series-level race. You could clearly see lots of under 13's and under 15's were out of their depth on this section of track with some electing to walk down it. Shining a spotlight on the issue were the kids in the same categories from overseas who made it look like water off a duck's back.
1/1000th of a second, F2, ISO 200, autofocus, 135mm
When is technology not the future? when it doesn't work. I've seen quite a few videos now of carbon handlebars snapping now and as that is 50% of the contact area you make with a bike it is fairly concerning. Portugal's Rui Fernandes can attest to that after hitting a tree, from watching it the contact didn't even seem that harsh.
1/1000th of a second, F2, ISO 200, autofocus, 135mm
Spain's Mario Valsero has certainly had better race runs. Pictured above caked in mud if that wasn't evident that he'd had a crash during his race run, being 30 seconds off the pace on the clock would be.
1/20th of a second, F4.5, ISO 50, manual focus, 28mm
Consistency, 1st in qualifying and 1st in finals, the Elite winner Ireland's Oisin O'Callaghan. Whilst not a surprise on paper, watching Oisin on track, visually he didn't seem that quick, optics are a funny one though and the clock never lies!
My takeaways from the event: A good venue run by a very nice guy and his Mrs. The uplifts are comically wild and though the track won't change much, I actually like the flat-out pace of it. Sticking to the schedule wasn't great and there was some cheeky extra practice by people with means which i wasn't a fan of. All in all a good event and perfect as a pre-season test. I would love to go back next year so hopefully the organiser and his other half do it all again (Although from a conversation I had with him, it may be unlikely which is a shame)
5689 images of the event available here