Bicycle Dreams / Not rated but would be could be PG-13 but I’m not sure why.
Almost everybody knows about Triathlons, The Tour de France and Marathons. All are endurance races which test competitors to their very limits. There has been a race held since 1982 that until this documentary I had no idea existed. It is the endurance trial to end all endurance trials.
Triathlons are intense but of fairly short duration. It involves a long swim, a long bike ride and a marathon run. The all time Iron Man competition record holder completed the events in just under 8 hours. The Tour de France varies in route and distance from year to year and also varies in terrain. Currently they ride every day for a week, take a rest day, back on the bikes for a week, one more day of rest then a final week in the saddles. Least accumulated time is the winner. The distances currently are 2100 to 2300 miles.
Since 1982 there has been a bike race across America. The start and finish points have varied but has run from various locations in Southern California to the East Coast. Since 2006 it has been between Oceanside, CA to Annapolis, Maryland. Unlike the Tour de France this race has everybody line up, the starters gun is fired and it’s every man for himself. No rest days. No time off. Sleep all you want but if you do you will lose. The race is transcontinental and runs at least 3 thousand miles start to finish. So far the quickest crossing was under 8 days and the longest just over 10. This means in order to be competitive you must be able to cover 300+ miles every day of the race. I could not cover 300 miles given 10 days to do it. This is one grueling competition.
With no TV or sports coverage the only way to sample this annual event is a film released in 2006 which covers the actual events start to finish of the 2005 event. Starting in San Diego and ending in Atlantic City NJ the first thing that you note is many of the participants barely make it across California to Arizona before they throw in the towel. Along the route they do sleep for a couple of hours here and there in support vehicles that follow along. It doesn’t take long before total exhaustion kicks in. The riders have hallucinations and even the strongest are constantly wondering why they don’t give up and quit. That would be the common sense thing to do. Many hang on and a few actually make it to the finish line. In this particular year one of the two fatalities which have occurred over the history of the event takes place. The eventual winner, who is probably the greatest almost completely unknown endurance athlete in history Jure Robic won this race a total of 5 times from 2004 to 2010. He was killed in September of 2010 in his home country of Slovenia while descending a hill on his bike.
This is an award winning documentary that is available on DVD and internet download. Anyone who is interested in endurance sports will marvel at the guts and determination of the participants in this race. And may Jure Robic R.I.P.
Rated 3.5 out of 4.0 reasons to pedal pedal pedal