Race Across The Sky - Movie Review

July 26th, 2010 4:20pm

So I am not a bonafide film critic, but I am a mountain bike racer with a sick fantasy of maybe actually trying to finish a Leadville 100. And given the success of our TV show (Bicycle World), I know a little something about tv/video production.

So out of support for cycling and a fellow entertainment creator, curiousity and a slightly bit of jealousy that I didn't come up with the idea, I plunked down my $12 duckets to see what the race was really all about. The movie opens with a good home grown feel of several riders, the race promoters and an emcee on a stage in front of a live audience going through some simple questions and introductions before quickly getting to the meat of the movie, the race history and the race itself.

Not too long on the race history either, just what you want to know about the event to make you want to support it more. And that, is pretty much where the movie begins to go off the boil. It quickly turned into a long edition of a day in the life of Lance. Sure they did the human interest angle of six time winner Dave Weins, but it became quickly apparent to this rider, that the movie wasn't as much about the race, but about Lance.

The cameras followed the lead group for a majority of the footage cutting in on several occassions to cover some great human interest stories like the woman who survived a horriffic auto accident while riding on her road bike only to come back and complete the race (multiple times now). Stuff that the race is really all about. But it's the overwhelming amount of footage of Lance interspersed with some of his voice overs of what losing last year taught him that turned me off. The contradiction of his words saying something about learning it was okay to lose, then show up with an unofficial band of TREK domestiques and joking about inaccurate time splits was a bit more than I could swallow. Could someone tell him that mountain bike racing is Mano-Y-Mano and that radios and time splits are for pussies? There is also a section in the movie where Lance talks about seeing all the faces during the return from the turn around and how cool it is that everyone shouts encouragement to each other.

Was it simply bad luck in the editing room or a line of BS - because while the mics picked up riders and fans cheering him on, I can't say I ever heard Lance cheer for one of the masses walking up one of the races tough climbs. Cutting back to the footage of the hail and rain that pummels the slower riders up on Columbine Pass, the movie did a good job of showing the physical pain any dedicated rider can appreciate and admire. Finally, in a panic over a flat tire in the last miles of the race, Lance who apparently really can't fix a tire, puts air in the leaking tire and promptly discards his used cartridge on the ground and rides off. Nice one. In all fairness, this occurs around the 90 mile mark and Lance has climbed 14,000 feet at big altitudes, so I am sure his thinking was not as sharp as it could have been. Let's blame it on the altitude and leave it at that. After watching the show, it becomes more obvious that film is either sponsored by directly by Trek or Lance himself as I realized that all the guests on stage are Trek Riders with the exception of Dave Wiens. It's not a blatant Trek sales meeting, but subliminal as Travis Brown and the Coach of Fort Lewis (whose name escapes me now) had no real business being on the stage.

The production value of the movie also needs to be reviewed. Knowing that the race was just run in August, Citizen Pictures did a good job putting together this movie in just 3 months. They used a mix of hand held cameras, a motorcycle camera (following Lance and the lead group) and even several spectacular helicopter camera shots including the show stopper of the top of Columbine climb. While not all of the cameras where of equal quality, I could overlook that as it gave the story a more real feel. If you are looking for some info on the race, this film does a good job to show you just how painful and epic this race can be. If you're looking to get inspired or want to convince friends that mountain biking is cool - skip it. If you are a Lance fan, this is one for your library.