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In 1998 after relocating to Cape Town, I decided I wanted photograph the Cape Town Cycle Race or The Argus as it was known then. it has since become the largest timed cycle race in the world with 35000 cyclists at it’s peak.

As they close the roads to traffic it is not possible to move about during the race unless you are travelling on 2 wheels or a helicopter along the route. So I chose my site carefully cause I know I would be there for the duration. This also meant that I would have to be there before the time. I had scouted in the days leading up to the race and knew I wanted to be on the world famous Champ’s Peak road and had also found the rock  wanted to take my shot from.

I drove through the evening before and parked in one of the few areas available on the side of the road. It was a blustery windy night with the South Easter swirling and gusting along the cliffs. As it was all large smooth granite boulders I was not able to put up a tent and had a thin hiking foam roll and a sleeping bag for the nights rest. Perched on the top of a smooth boulder on a cliff with a 100m drop one the ocean side and the wind constantly gripping at my sleeping bag I didn’t really get any sleep , only able to doze off for short intervals. I was relieved when the sky began to lighten and I could fetch my cameras from my car parked below. I was unsure as to when I could expect the first riders and kept checking the first curve in the road where they would be visible.

Finally I saw them come sweeping through and within a very short space of time they were in the area I had had determined to photograph them.The speed at which they were travelling surprised me and I managed to shoot few frames and  they were gone. I shot a few more groups and then descended done to the road level and shot more groups as they came racing past. I shot it various different ways but I knew from experience that a panning shot with the rock cliff face as a background was one of the images I was after. The solid dark rock face with cyclists flying by was what I was after.

As I was running a black and white laboratory at the time, working as a master printer, I had elected to shoot a B&W film on my  trusty Nikon FM2.