Tour 2008 Chris Wallis Pictures

Chris Wallis was in the Alps for the 2008 Tour de France

Chris Wallis writes - Once again July came around and it was time for the tour, and the thing you always manage to forget is how hard following the tour can be long hours lots of driving and not always a proper bed for the night, only doing 10 days made it a little easier but only just. This year I managed to aim for the Alps and as luck would have it managed to see two British stage wins, Europe’s highest road pass, two different countries, my favourite ever Alp, drive 2600kms and sadly see a drug scandal or two.

Being one man in a car does mean you have to try and choose carefully what you do for the day and I was a victim of some bad choices for the flatter stages on the races way to the Alps and had to be even more careful in the mountains as its very much a one shot deal you have to either be on a moto or do something spectacular and be very lucky as there are so few roads getting back ahead of the peloton is almost impossible.

Thankfully I was rewarded with some good shots this year, fairly sure the only person to photograph Tony Doyle with Mark Cavandish’s new shoes, catch the riders coming off Europe’s highest road pass (but not a rider falling off it) and finally see the GC contenders set themselves up for the final Time trial to decide overall victory.

Website - www.wallisphotos.co.uk