A rider cleans off post-race in the famous Paris-Roubaix velodrome shower hall.

Post-crash recovery.

Philippe Gilbert's legs after winning a stage of the Vuelta a Espana.

I'm endlessly amazed at how closely they can ride together in the group.

A peek inside a team bus during the Giro d'Italia. The "crash pad" for Alta VeloCidad's bus is based on this shot and a few other team buses I've found online.

This is *literally* the moment where the story started taking shape in my head. As I watched Cancellara receive the maillot jaune, I was speaking to my husband on the phone (he was in Italy, I was in the US). When the camera panned out and showed Cancellara on the podium, I said, without thinking, "I want to lick his legs." My husband didn't miss a beat and said "If you can catch him, go right ahead." That moment, combined with the team politics on display by the Astana riders (specifically Contador and Armstrong) led to the creation of 27 Stages.

This is one of my all-time favorite photos, and even now, looking at it makes me want to write a story for it.

There is a scene in 27 Stages which was written before I saw this photo, but which mentions a photo Abby takes over her shoulder without even looking, after sensing someone is watching her. When she looks at it later, she finds Federico was in the crowd after all. This is *literally* the sort of image I imagined her capturing.

Riding in the rain isn't just wet, but cold, too. No wonder they all look so miserable, eh?

In my next life, I want to come back as a fly so I can spy on the boys in the bus.

This year's Milan-Sanremo race proved that there is nothing - absolutely *nothing* - I can write which will ever compete with real life. But I will keep trying.

Cancellara falls to the ground after winning this year's Paris-Roubaix by a bike length.

Gilberto Simoni. Cyclist.

Fabian training with his RadioShackNissanTrek teammates on the cobbles in Belgium.