I’ve seen plenty of cycling videos over the years—many Tours de France, several Giros, spring classics, Hell On Wheels, and so on, and on, and on. However, I recently watched a DVD that became immediately one of my all-time favorites: PRO - A Feature Documentary. Here’s a brief synopsis from the film’s website: “Using [the 2004] US PRO Championship in Philadelphia as its canvas, the film follows riders from every one of the major teams through the experience of Philly week and goes behind the scenes to learn what it takes to orchestrate and execute a victory at the most prestigious one day classic in American bike racing.”
Serious cycling fanatics will love the detail—the discussion and execution of team tactics, etc.—and marvel over the riders’ abilities and ability to suffer, like Danny Pate and Mike Sayers of Health Net driving a ridiculous break and putting the hurt on pretty much all by themselves for the better part of 100 miles, or Chris Horner attacking once, getting caught, and then going again from the bottom of Manayunk Wall all the way to the top causing complete carnage (although the move ultimately didn’t succeed). And while July cycling fans might not know the names of Danny Pate or Mike Sayers or Gord Fraser or Chris Horner or Erik Saunders or Mark McCormack, it doesn’t matter because the film takes you into their lives and into their minds, in the days leading up to the race and even months before the race. You get to know these riders as people—what makes them tick, what drives them, what their fears are. It puts faces on a sport that can sometimes seem anonymous as we watch the peloton roll by on OLN. That, and you get a play-by-play, lap-by-lap account of how tactics are playing out, what their immediate and likely consequences are and will be, what “needs to” and “should” happen, and why certain riders and teams are doing what they are doing.
All of this combined not only makes an exciting video, but also provides a way into the sport of professional cycling, which can often seem esoteric and disorganized to those who don’t follow the sport regularly. (I’d give it 5 Netflix stars if I could. But they don’t carry it!)
