San Francisco Twilight Criterium

Twilight Criterium 5, originally uploaded by lacadaz.

Saturday they closed Union Street for most of the afternoon and evening for the first Twilight Criterium Bicycle Races. It was not all that great for business but turned out to be a lot of fun to watch. My store was actually on two blocks away from the race itself so I did not get to see any of the Kids or Amateur races. I did however bring my camera to work so that I could shoot the Women and Men's Pro events. The Women's event started in light at 6:40 and ran for an hour into the twilight. The Men's event didn't start until eight and took place in under the lights.

For the women I was on the top of the uphill for the last turn. For the men I moved to the bottom of Filmore for the fast downhill turn. Fast may actually be an understatement. Much of the action I didn't get a chance to see until I looked at the pictures I was taking almost blind. I had to turn off the auto-focus because there was no time for my camera to lock on. It took most of the race to get my settings right but by the last few laps I was getting some shots I was happy with.

It was quite a rush standing right where they took that corner. You could feel the air as the bikes sped by. The only drawback was you can't be at an event in the Marina on a the weekend without a high percentage of drunken douche-bags, including the 6'3" guy that insisted on leaning out over the bikers for half of the race. I have to admit that I would have gotten some great pictures of the carnage if this moron had fallen on the pack of bikes.