The Breakaway

July 31, 2018

FOCUS ON THE PHOTOGRAPHER

  • Our man Jordi, modelling for us in 2017
  • On top of Ventoux, shooting our Charly Gaul jerseys
  • One of Jordi's shots of Ramon on Ventoux
  • Ramon by Jordi for the Club Collection range
  • Jordi surveying the vanquished mountains
  • Jordi conquering the Glandon

We first met Jordi Carruana in March 2017 when he modelled for our 2017 Summer Collection on the beautiful roads of Girona. Not only a passionate cyclist and purveyor of some of the finest cycling kit on the market, Jordi is a talented photographer with an eye for capturing the excitement of sport. We spoke to Jordi about his two obsessions and how he balances life as a cyclist and photographer.

Read on to learn more about Jordi and for a chance to win a set of Chapeau! Club kit.

I don’t like the studio. I like photography in motion.

That balance seems like a constant battle with the two fighting each other “when I’m shooting cyclists I envy them, it’s true – I’d love to be on a bike – but if I'm the subject of the shoot I yearn for the camera.”The two sides of the cycling photographer are interlinked with the appreciation of each discipline aiding the opposite, it’s more of a symbiotic relationship than an antagonistic one. We wondered about the sport of cycling and how it manages to create such a rich vein of beautiful imagery, whether it was the scenery or the bikes or the athletes themselves; “I think that a successful cycling image has a quality where, when someone looks into the image, they are transported to the same place – you bring the viewer with you. That’s your job as a photographer, connecting the place and the emotion. Cycling helps you create that emotion.”

To help launch our special edition Charly Gaul range of products, Jordi captured some great images on Mont Ventoux – the scene of Gaul’s most famous victories in 1958. It was Jordi’s first time on the famous mountain; “I was so impressed, I loved being behind the camera shooting this legendary scene. Luckily I took the bike, so the next day – despite the bad weather - I managed to get up early and climb. To enjoy the climb as a photographer and a cyclist is the ultimate dream!”

Unsurprisingly, the famous climbs hold an interest to Jordi as much as a cyclist as a photographer. On a recent trip to the French Alps he took on the several of the Tour de France’s most illustrious mountains: “I enjoyed the Col d'Izoard the most, its a long climb with absolutely everything — wide, narrow, wooded, expose and it’s long! Lacets de Montvernier was a pleasant surprise, you come from a busy highway, look up and see a small church and a rocky wall that seems impossible to have a road” The way Jordi describes the climbs makes it clear he’s a visual person, it’s no surprise that boasts great photographic talents when for many of us a climb is a set of numbers, a challenge and a clock.

Despite describing landscapes with elegant prose, its movement that mosts interests Jordi as a photographer. “I don’t like the studio. I like photography in motion, I like to capture things that at first glance escape.”

The dream for Jordi is to be on the World Tour, perhaps at the Tour de France – a dream as both cyclist and photographer perhaps. But its the unseen that most interests, not the usual epic race images you might imagine: “I’d love to be immersed in it, to see day by day – the stress of the life and the peculiarities of the riders and the race. It’s a story”.

It’s this story telling art that appeals to us most when Jordi shoots the Chapeau! collections. He has an art for capturing what we like most of cycling – the pleasure of riding, enjoying the bike and doing that in clothes fit for purpose.

Choose your favourite of Jordi's photographs for a chance to win Chapeau! goodies

Competition

We've chosen a small selection of Jordi's great photography and we'd like you to select your favourite. Voting for your favourite image will enter you into a draw to win Chapeau! goodies. Take a look at the gallery below and scroll to the bottom to find out how to enter.

The prize

The winner will win a full set of Club kit in a colour of your choice. That's a jersey, bibs, socks and even a cap*. If you're going to judge beautiful imagery you deserve to look a picture.

How to enter

Go to our instagram page, follow us (if you don't already), find the competition post and comment with your favourite photograph to be entered into the prize draw.

Gallery

No.1 — Chapeau! Club Range Shoot, Cadaques

 

No.2 — Christian Meier of the Service Course, Sant Hilari Sacalm

 

No.3 — Cycling School Josep Jufré

 

No.4 — Redhook Crit in Barcelona

 

No.5 — Lakes of Panticosa

 

Reminder of how to enter

Go to our instagram page, follow us (if you don't already), find the competition post and comment with your favourite photograph to be entered into the prize draw.

Want more from Chapeau? Why not check out our Summer sale here

*Depending on stock availability