Tadej Pogačar won his fifth Tour de France on July 26, 2026, equalling the all-time record held by Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault. The 27-year-old UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider won five individual stages along the way and finished more than six minutes clear of second-placed Remco Evenepoel (The Guardian) (BikeRadar). Mathieu van der Poel took the final stage on the Champs-Élysées (BBC Sport).

Two days later, a different kind of Tour story appeared. The Guardian published a photo essay by Pete Goding, who has now photographed 20 editions of the race — roughly half his life spent leaning off the back of a motorbike, camera in hand, chasing cyclists through July heat and mountain fog (The Guardian).

Goding's first Tour came during the Lance Armstrong era, when he shot on a film SLR. Digital had not yet taken over the pressroom, and the images came back in strips, not files. The sport has changed around him, and so has the job.

Before Covid-19, the Tour accredited 18 in-race photography motos — motorbikes carrying a rider and a photographer through the convoy ahead of the peloton (the main pack of riders). By 2026, that number has been cut to nine. Goding now works with a small Belgian-Italian collective that pools photo agency allocations to hold on to one of those prized moto slots. Fewer bikes on the road means fewer angles covered, fewer chances to catch the moment a race breaks open.

The 2026 Tour began with a team time trial in Barcelona, where Goding framed the start against the Sagrada Família. His assignments this year also took in a handful of sprint stages and the mountain finish at Orcières-Merlette — a climb steep and high enough to crack legs and reshuffle the overall standings. On Stage 18, he was trackside when Richard Carapaz attacked with three kilometres to go, the kind of late, desperate move that either sticks or strands its author on the road.

What makes Goding's essay stand out is the access it reveals. A moto photographer rides inside the race, not beside it. They feel the crosswids, hear the team cars' radios crackle, and see riders' faces at the exact moment suffering turns to something else — resignation, rage, or a second wind. Twenty years of that adds up to a record no result sheet captures.

Goding's gallery from the opening day is available at godingimages.com. The full Guardian essay is here.