Book Review: Balint Hamvas' "Cyclocross"
If you need a gift for the cyclocross fan on your holiday shopping list, we've got an excellent book to recommend: Cyclocross, by Hungarian cycling photographer Balint Hamvas.
Hamvas has been covering cyclocross since 2008, when he attended a World Cup event in the Czech Republic and immediately fell in love with the discipline. He’s been documenting each season in a yearbook since 2010, making this the fifth edition in a series that gets better each year.
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“For me, cyclocross is about intensity,” says Hamvas. “All the action and the drama is compressed into just one hour. There is no hiding, there are no clever tactics and teamwork—just power, skills, and pain. I’ve covered over 150 international races in the past couple of years, but I still get goosebumps every time the lights turn green.”
Hamvas’s love for the sport is on full display in Cyclocross, a book that serves as a compelling reminder of what happens when passion meets talent. This isn’t hardcore race photography—Hamvas doesn’t consider himself to be “only” a race photographer—though the book may resemble it at times. Cyclocross is a yearly ode to a sport Hamvas cares about as deeply as the Belgian cycling super-fans who line muddy courses all over Northern Europe each weekend from October to February.
Past editions of the book have been arranged chronologically, a structure Hamvas decided to change with the newest edition. This time he’s divided the book in four main sections: one for each of the international calendar’s three main race series (the World Cup, the Bpost Bank Trofee, and the Superprestige) and one for the World Championships. Each race in the series is represented, and Hamvas covers more than just the elite men’s events at each stop. He also includes results (something he hasn’t done before), which makes Cyclocross an excellent scrapbook of the 2014-2015 European season.
But racing isn’t the only thing to catch Hamvas’ eye. Readers are lucky to find photo essays documenting “the stories behind the stories” including features on race volunteers, fans, and my favorite, Hamvas’ first trip to shoot a cyclocross race back home in Hungary, a race run through two movie sets. (You’ll just have to buy the book to see how incredibly cool that is.) There’s also a terrific piece showing what famous courses look like throughout the rest of the year—when they go back to being “just” fields, parks, or other open spaces.
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“I like comprehensive things,” Hamvas says. “Whatever I do, it needs to cover everything. It is impossible, but I try to give a true chronicle of the season (at least the European part of it.) In Europe, most races are covered by press photographers, who are rarely passionate about the sport. But I have a different style. I try to wander around the course to show not just the action, but the atmosphere of the races as well.”
And while he calls the book itself “photo album,” there’s much more to Cyclocross than just pretty pictures. Stories on the legendary Dugast tire factory, the earnings gap between men and women, and the growing rivalry between Belgium’s Wout Van Aert and the Netherlands’ Mathieu Van der Poel break up the race action Hamvas provides, and together, they enhance the season-long narrative the book documents.
Perhaps the book’s most stunning achievement is the simple fact that Hamvas does it all by himself—along with a little help from a few talented friends. It’s a time-intensive process for sure, but it allows Hamvas to stay true to the goosebumps he first felt back in 2008.
Cyclocross is a must-have for any cyclocross fan, especially Americans who have recently fallen in love with the sport but see little more of it than what a grainy Internet feed provides early on a Saturday or Sunday morning. It’s the next best thing to buying a plane ticket and heading to Europe to see the races in person.
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And don’t worry about overseas shipping. Hamvas has the book stocked in the US and says orders placed up until December 19 should arrive in time for Christmas. For a great gift package, pair it with one of our favorite coffee table cycling books, Fifty Places to Bike Before You Die.
Price: $45
Info: cyclephotos.co.uk
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