The Road Soldier
On a shoot with the Norwegian champion

Kurt-Asle Arvesen is one of CSC-Saxo Bank’s tough guys, a good man to have around who can pull all day and still win races given half a chance. He won the tough stage 11 of the 2008 Tour de France, the one that took the race out of the Pyrenees from Lanemezan to Foix.

He’s good at the Classics too. He won the E3 Vlaanderen this year, and he’s got five Norwegian titles to
his name.
You can read all about his career in the December issue of Cycle Sport magazine. This little piece is about the photo shoot I did to go with
that story.
I went to his summer base close to Lake Garda in northern Italy to meet him, and to ask him to show us one of his favourite training rides.

Kurt-Asle has two looks; one is an uncompromising snarl for when he’s racing, the other is a ready grin for when he’s not. His work face and his play face. He’s not a thoroughbred team leader, nor a neurotic sprinter. He’s no lightweight climber either.
He’s solid, long bodied with muscular slightly bowed legs. He’s a front line combat rider, who’s not in his team to win wars, but is a key player in winning battles. Arvesen is a true road soldier.

The off duty smile greets us after I’ve
linked up with Italian photographer,
Pier Maulini. Arvesen introduces his wife Nina and slumps into a chair for a quick interview. He knows we are soon going to drag him outside into the autumn sun.

While we chat, Pier scopes out photo opportunities. He likes the olive grove and vineyard just over the road, and Kurt-Asle goes over my map pointing out the best places for riding pictures.

Out on the roads and we are driving in front of Arvesen while he commentates on the surrounding countryside. Pier’s in the back snapping away, while Arvesen rides and talks. Pier tries to get different angles. “Pret pret, loin loin, au milleu,” he shouts. I don’t speak Italian, Pier not much English, so we get by in French. Of course the Norwegian is fluent in all three, and keeps control of our overall direction with well placed rights and lefts.

We bounce along, skidding onto the verge to avoid an Italian boy racer in a
hot hatch at one point. We’re a
comical confusion of several languages, all pointing in
different directions.

Happy with his moving shots Pier looks for backdrops. “Turn right and there is a good view of the lake,” says our ever helpful pro. “Non, trop vide,” says Pier. It’s quite hot and the air over the lake is thick with haze. The mountains behind it are two-dimensional blue cut outs. No depth, no feeling of their size.

While I’m not driving I want take some pictures too, so we can put them on Crazy. Arvesen obliges. There could be one photographer or 101, it’s all the same, all in the job. He was riding a Classic yesterday, Paris-tours, but you wouldn‘t know.

We carry on riding, chatting and snapping all afternoon and end up back in the olive grove for some static shots. At one point we nearly lost Kurt-Asle over a wall that Pier asked him to sit on. There was a 50 foot drop on the other side.

Pier doesn‘t want sunglasses on for
this bit, so Kurt-Asle has to blink
patiently while he sets up the shot. We talk quietly about his upcoming Roman holiday, the credit crunch and global warming. We’ve put the world to rights by the time Pier is ready.

Snap snap and we’re done. A few words of thanks and we’re off back up the Autostrada. Pier back up to his eyrie high in the Pietmonte Alps, and me back to Milan Malpensa and a delay. But at least I wrote this. Mission accomplished and another job done.

Words and pics by Chris Sidwells