Today, their annual trans-Europe adventure lasts from the beginning of February until the end of October. A first magazine commission came in 2009, and a year later, when Ashley finished her degree, they got married and went all in on a joint career. The Grubers wrote up their trips on Facebook, where a follower suggested their pictures were good enough to earn money. Jered was working for a cycling news website, which sent him on assignments around Europe. They began cycling together, taking his camera wherever they went.

Jered bought Ashley a bike and himself a first DSLR, a Nikon D40. During the year they spent there, two more life-changing decisions were taken. Jered gave up pro cycling and followed Ashley to Innsbruck, Austria where she was studying.

For some reason, I turned around and went back to talk to her and it didn’t take long before our life turned completely upside down.” “Then, about a week before the season started, I was out on my bike with a couple of friends and this girl walked in front of me on a zebra crossing. “I was a cyclist over the moon with my first professional contract,” Jered remembers. They met in 2008 in their hometown of Athens, Georgia, USA, in what could be a scene from a cheesy romantic movie. Their dynamic action shots, in close-up or against expansive landscapes, and energetic crowd montages are in demand from magazines, pro cycling brands and organisations. Jered and Ashley have taken the simple pleasure of what they call “riding bikes and taking pictures” and made it both their successful business and their way of life. An amazing assembly of humanity shows up to watch the race.” But, what’s always interesting and always different are the people on the side the road. “It’s always interesting but there’s a certain point, with the routine the same every day, when you’re just kind of over the details of it. “Take, for example, the Tour de France,” says Jered. For bike-loving photographers, it seems like the dream assignment, but, creatively speaking, routine can let the air out of anyone’s tyres, no matter how pumped you may be for the job. For nine months of the year, every year, Jered and Ashley Gruber criss-cross Europe to photograph professional cycling’s premium races.

How to Catch a Biker by Ana Ashley