Paris-Roubaix Femmes

When people say a picture captures a thousand words, they could very well be speaking about this beautifully wild cycle race. Images of the competitors who tackle the cobbles of the Paris-Roubaix course – dust and grime across their exhausted faces and bodies, blood seeping from carefully bandaged fingers – are as much a part of the event as the race reports that come out of it. Professional and highly celebrated photographers Jojo Harper and Ashley Gruber are well-versed in the art of trying to capture and convey the scenes from the testing race, its effects on the professional riders (both male and female) and the magical atmosphere of this whirlwind that tears through the otherwise sleepy rural French countryside.

“I think in the beginning I actually really hated it,” confides Ashley, speaking to me post-ride. She’s been on the road at various cycling races for the past seven weeks and has just arrived back in Italy where she lives when not in her native US. “There’s this medium to high level of stress throughout the day. There are so many things that can go wrong. It’s really challenging creatively because there are not many options of how you can shoot it.” She explains how even when she’s applied the same approach at each race, from where to stop to take photographs and how to manoeuvre ahead of the race, she’s been faced with a different scenario each time. However she says she’s starting to understand the magic of the race and describes being there to document the first Paris-Roubaix Femmes in October 2021 as a huge privilege. “It was really special and it was definitely a day I’ll remember.” Was she nervous? “Oh, always,” she says with a laugh. “I mean, that doesn’t go away, it doesn’t matter what the race is… but yeah, it definitely was ratcheted up to like 11 out of 10.”

For both Ashley and Jojo, the photographs they took of the inaugural winner, Lizzie Deignan crossing the finishing line and then subsequently in the famous Roubaix Velodrome showers, form a part of cycling history. Now, the 2022 winner, Italian rider (and Deignan’s Trek-Segafredo team mate) Elisa Longo Borghini joins the canon of riders who’ve lifted the prestigious cobblestone trophy. It may seem odd but a well-known tradition for finishers of the Paris-Roubaix race is to have their photographs artfully taken in the brutalist looking concrete showers. It certainly makes for a striking image and is a memento the riders proudly share on their social media profiles. For Jojo, who attended this latest edition of the race with her four-month-old baby Winter, the showers took on a new meaning, albeit not on purpose.

Unlike Ashley, Jojo says she rarely gets nervous before shooting bike races now, but she does admit that the pressure of covering the first ever Paris-Roubaix Femmes was intense. Being the team photographer of Trek-Segafredo (Lizzie’s team) meant there was added expectation on Jojo’s shoulders. She recalls running into the velodrome, heavily pregnant, five minutes before Lizzie rolled in. “We so nearly missed the finish… that was quite anxiety provoking,” she shares candidly. “When she won, it was amazing. I’ve worked with Trek for more than four years now so it feels like more than just a job. It was a pretty special moment.”

Unlike the 2021 edition, which unleashed a wet and muddy day of racing, this year’s race was dry, dusty and warm. Did that bring with it different challenges for the photographers? “You can’t see a thing,” exclaims Jojo of the all-encompassing dust that’s kicked up as the wheels of the cyclists and cars pound over the route. “To be honest, it’s really not my style [to] point and shoot and hope for the best but sometimes at Roubaix, with the athletes and the action, you just have to do that.” There is a little more control to be had over the photographs of the surroundings, such as the landscapes, fans, plus the pre- and post-race moments, she explains. Her preference, she adds, is to observe and take time to compose an image where possible.

So, of those photographs Jojo and Ashley did capture from the 2021 and 2022 Paris-Roubaix Femmes, are there any favourites? For Jojo, it’s the outpouring of emotion and celebration she captured when Elisa and her fellow Trek-Segafredo team mates hugged and congratulated each other after the finish line. “It’s always so nice when the girls celebrate together because obviously it’s a team effort. That’s always pretty special to photograph.” Ashley says her photo of Elisa winning was a highlight (“I got a really clean finish photo, which is always satisfying”), but there’s also an image that she loves for what it symbolises. In one of her photos of a rider in the showers this year, two other female photographers are visible in the background: “From a visual standpoint, it’s not as nice or as clean, but it’s also interesting [to see] one year on, there were more female photographers.” Sports photography and the cycling industry is still heavily male-dominated, but Ashley says she has noticed a shift within the 12 years she’s been working in the field. “There have always been a few [female photographers], and there are still comparatively few, but I would say more are coming into the space and it’s really lovely.”

“I love what I do, I love the job but having a baby put it into perspective,” shares Jojo. She has another great moment she’d like to add, which wonderfully brings together her personal and professional life: “Getting back after three and a half hours and seeing my baby and realising that she was smiling and happy. And then Elisa came to the showers and she wanted to hold her… after that all the girls met her and were really accepting of me being there with her – that was a highlight.”