World-renowned biking photographer Cor Vos handed away out of the blue on Tuesday morning on the age of 77. The Rotterdam native was an icon within the biking peloton. Cor and his spouse Carla – aka the Cor Vos company have been our main supply for superb race photos since 2002.
Cor Vos with Tom Dumoulin
Cor Vos started his profession as an novice bike owner himself, later combining his passions for biking and images. Through the years, Vos turned a widely known determine within the biking world. In 1975, he based his personal press company and for 35 years he was energetic in occasions such because the Tour de France from his motorbike. On Tuesday morning, Vos out of the blue fell unwell and died within the hospital. He deliberate to retire in 2026 and journey together with his spouse Carla.
PEZCycling Information founder and writer, Richard Pestes: “He was the primary legit biking photographer to comply with work with us. So we caught with him ever since. I feel it’s been over 22 years. I met him at de Ronde in 2007(?) after which obtained to know him and his spouse Carla over time. Cor was from that technology that knew a unique model of cycle sport than we do now. He began as.a photographer capturing movie in black and white.
He was for me usually Dutch – that may be very direct. It’s a trait we North Individuals typically confuse as rudeness, which is a misunderstanding. However I all the time knew the place I stood with Cor – there was by no means any bs. He was all the time loyal and handled us higher than virtually another consumer I’ve labored with. By means of the previous few years of declining model assist for biking media, Cor all the time labored with us and by no means denied us entry to his huge catalogue of fantastic photos. He was a high class operator, and is a serious loss to biking media.”
The Historical past Behind Cor Vos
The Rotterdam native’s title is synonymous with lovely biking pictures. He has been a family title in biking because the Nineteen Seventies, even now that he’s now not on the bike himself. Collectively together with his spouse Carla, he ran his picture press company. He despatched photographers everywhere in the world and, from behind his laptop, up to date his database each day. And when there have been no competitions, he scanned his outdated movie and slide photos so as to add to his huge digital archive..
Cor Vos with World champion Gerrie Knetemann
Cor Vos himself has a biking background. “I used to be a racer, nothing particular. I rode criteriums and quick excursions. However you want these to fill a peloton; you may’t simply have winners. In 1968, the 12 months Jan Janssen gained the Tour de France, I crashed. Extreme mind injury. That ended my profession instantly. After that, I didn’t do something for not less than 5 years. Then I began taking pictures. I’d by no means held a digital camera earlier than, after I went to observe one other membership race. I’d purchased a Russian digital camera—I nonetheless have it—and I began experimenting. I by no means took a course; I taught myself every little thing. Self-taught, they name it. I additionally taught myself how you can develop on location.”
Vos skilled his first Tour de France as a photographer in 1975. Not but on a motorbike. “However if you wish to be proper within the thick of the race, that’s a prerequisite. So I went to race director Felix Lévitan with a journalist who spoke French. We stated: ‘There are increasingly Dutch successes, it’s time we let a Dutch photographer journey the bike.’ The next 12 months, I used to be bike quantity seven. That’s what number of photographers had been within the race again then.”
Cor realised he began at a very good time. There wasn’t a lot competitors but. And with the arrival of the TI Raleigh crew, Dutch successes elevated. “For the primary two years, I rode with a French motorcyclist. He’s now 93, and I nonetheless ship him a Christmas card. However I didn’t converse French, so I began on the lookout for a Dutch motorcyclist. That turned out to be Joop Zijlaard, Michael’s father and Leontien’s father-in-law. After six years, he stop, and it was solely then that I realised he’d all the time pushed for me with out a license! An excellent motorcyclist is so vital. It accounts for not less than forty p.c of the picture’s high quality. If I yell ‘cease,’ he doesn’t need to drive one other hundred meters.”
Moto driver Joop Zijlaard
At one level, Cor obtained so busy that he employed a photographer. “After which one other, and one other. I organized the automobile, purchased the cameras, and paid all of the journey bills. Joop Zijlaard warned me: ‘Cor, you’ll educate monkeys to climb, and in some unspecified time in the future they’ll throw a coconut at your head.’ That’s occurred earlier than, however most of them have been taking pictures for me for years.”
The arrival of digital images not solely meant a shift in Cor’s working strategies, but additionally a redefined function for him. “After 100 kilometres of racing, I’d take the playing cards out of the cameras and go to the press room. In some unspecified time in the future, I believed: I’ll save some huge cash if I keep dwelling and organise every little thing from Hoogvliet.” He rode his motorbike much less and fewer usually, the final time being when the Tour de France began in Rotterdam in 2010.
Arduous at work
Cor had a very good eye for an excellent biking picture. “I’ve been fully blind in my proper eye since delivery. Oh nicely, within the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” Cor at 75, had no intention of quitting. “I nonetheless get pleasure from it an excessive amount of, and I’ve the duty for a number of staff. However turning into the richest man within the cemetery doesn’t make a lot sense both. So my spouse says: simply maintain going.”
Everybody at PEZ Biking Information sends their condolences to the Vos household and mates.
Tour de France 2010 – Cor Vos with Tour director Christian Prudhomme
# Due to WielerFlits for the historical past and quotes. #
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