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Nothin’ But a Bunch of Cutters

Wednesday, June 30th, 2004

Via Arts & Letters Daily, the New Criterion runs a review of a history of the Tour de France. Two snippets:

It is an athletic event that actually harms the athletesâ?? bodies. (Racers cannot consume enough food to replace the 6,000 or so calories burned off by each dayâ??s stage. Most finish the race with less muscle mass than they began with.) The raceâ??s founder, Henri Desgrange, wanted it to be so tough that there would be only a single finisher. He never got his wish, but the sport he set in motion takes such a savage toll on its riders that studies show that the life expectancy of a professional cyclist is barely more than fifty years.

And this wonderful anecdote about Lance Armstrong:

Armstrong seems clean because of his devotion to training for the Tour. The very fine British racer David Miller tells the story of ringing Armstrong on his cell phone on Christmas Day a few years back. Miller was tipsy in a bar with his mates. His call finds Armstrong riding his bike up a steep mountain. Millerâ??s friends wonder why he is swearing a blue streak into his phone at a close friend. Millerâ??s response: â??Iâ??ve just lost the Tour de France.â?

Now, go rent the greatest cycling movie ever made.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 30th, 2004 at 4:49 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

21 Responses to “Nothin’ But a Bunch of Cutters”

  1. #1 |  Richard |  June 30th, 2004 at 6:26 pm

    “Greatest cycling movie ever made”? Just how many ARE there?

  2. #2 |  Bronwyn |  June 30th, 2004 at 6:37 pm

    I can think of two, offhand. Breaking Away of course was made right here in good ol’ B-ton, home of the Little500. I can’t remember the name of the other one, but it features a very young Kevin Costner and a couple of other very young Somebodies.

    I’d look it up at the IMDb, but I’m on a crappy modem and can barely tolerate the wait to load TheAgitator.

  3. #3 |  actually |  June 30th, 2004 at 7:11 pm

    Millar recently confessed to doping to French authorities.

    http://www.velonews.com
    http://www.cyclingnews.com

    You can get LIVE tour coverage at work from both sites.

    Cycling is a sport of willful suffering. It may seem simple, but it is not easy.

    To give you an example:

    Last year Tyler Hamilton cracked (in two places) his clavicle on the first road stage of the Tour. He finished the Tour 4th overall and won a stage on a 100k breakaway where he averaged over the last 60k, around 27 mph. All this with a broken bone. He literally grinded it out; he had to have 10 caps put in over the winter to replace the teeth he wore down grinding from the pain.

    I’m an amateur bike racer myself. My best discipline is cyclocross.

    This is going to be the best Tour de France in recent history. I cannot wait.

    Such a beautiful sport.

  4. #4 |  Micah |  June 30th, 2004 at 7:42 pm

    That other cycling movie is “American Flyers.” But what about “Quicksilver?” Bike messengers are people, too. (Too bad that movie sucked)

  5. #5 |  titus |  June 30th, 2004 at 9:22 pm

    And here I was, thinking I was the only Tour fan in the US, besides the anti-car/oil/capitalist Critical Massers (with whom I used to ride).

    I tool around town on a fixed gear with a filed-down steel Fuji touring frame from the eighties.

    Remeber Lance doing a little cyclecross last year when Beloki crashed right in front of him? That kicked ass.

    Man, I can’t wait. I’m sick in the head.

  6. #6 |  Bruce |  June 30th, 2004 at 9:29 pm

    Lance Armstrong is an athlete’s athlete and one of the mentally and physically toughest people on the planet. His determination is an inspiration and his success speaks for itself. I too am early anticipating this years Tour. But I’m only a fan, not a practitioner.

  7. #7 |  actually |  June 30th, 2004 at 9:58 pm

    I love a good critical mass. Naked critical masses are even better.

    I got my Surly Cross Check fixed up with a 42×16.

    I’m looking forward to ordering my new Seven. http://www.sevencycles.com

    What a great example of capitalism our sport is. Pushing the limits of both humans and technology way beyond anything imaginable. The technology trickles down to the masses. If only the fitness would, too.

    It’s a shame Postal ended! Their market share was growing in Europe thanks to Lance and Co. Well worth the advertising.

    Heck, look at TIAA-CREF’s development team. http://www.tiaa-cref.org/cycling/

    They gave top U-23 collegiate rider the 13th spot on the team.

    Our sport rocks!

  8. #8 |  R Gardner |  June 30th, 2004 at 10:28 pm

    Radley,

    Try out the Tuesday 6:30 Potomac Pedalers B/BB ride in Alexandria – quick google will find the details. We start real near your place – you could ride to the start (easier than driving there, in fact). If you get dropped, there is the cue sheet ;) No “Bo” though.

    Breaking Away actually played at Visions Theater a couple of weeks (June 17) ago as a fundraiser in memory of the commuting cyclist killed on S. Capitol a couple of months ago. I recently picked up American Flyers on DVD (own the videotape), and it was edited – scenes were missing.

    As for Le Tour, why is OLN (otherwise known as the bass fishing channel) super-premium on Cox Cable? I used to watch it live on Eurosport, Phil Liggett reporting, Liggettisms and all.

    As for “Naked Critical Mass,” that was also last month, nearest was Asheville, NC http://www.worldnakedbikeride.org/resources/2004.html (Safe for work, but the links off this aren’t).

  9. #9 |  Aaron Bolner |  June 30th, 2004 at 10:28 pm

    I saw that link and thought, “Radley, that had *better* be ‘Breaking Away’…” Good man.

  10. #10 |  actually |  June 30th, 2004 at 10:33 pm

    Oh, did anyone see “Triplets of Belleville.”

    Greatest animated cycling movie.

  11. #11 |  PJ Doland |  July 1st, 2004 at 12:24 am

    I second the Belleville endorsement.

    Beautiful movie.

    Lay off the Hoosier/Cutter crap or go back to Indiana.

  12. #12 |  wade |  July 1st, 2004 at 7:30 am

    i’m a big fan of BMX Bandits..

  13. #13 |  Steve |  July 1st, 2004 at 7:55 am

    Sorry, but while Breaking Away is a fine cycling movie, and The Triplets of Bellville is a fine movie with cycling in it, if you want the best movie about cycling, or the movie that best shows what the professional peloton is like, find a copy of “A Sunday in Hell,” which is about the 1976 Paris-Roubaix bike race. Paris-Roubaix is what is known as a “Spring Classic” – a bike race that has been going on for well over 80 years (at least!) now. The 1976 race was a particularly nasty version (it’s run in Northern France, in April – the weather is just awful), and makes a tremendously compelling movie. This is what professional bike racing is.

  14. #14 |  DougB |  July 1st, 2004 at 9:36 am

    I almost clicked on that link to see if you meant “Breaking Away” or “American Flyers.”

    Then I remembered you were from Indiana. No click necessary.

    That would be like having to ask you what the best basketball movie ever made was.

  15. #15 |  Joe Sims |  July 1st, 2004 at 12:04 pm

    DougB,

    Best basketball movie ever made… Hmmm… It’s Teen Wolf, right?

    Regardless of what sort of debate one could make about the best bicycling movie might be, I think we can all agree that the best movie ever made about high school wrestling (featuring Madonna) is Vision Quest…

  16. #16 |  Bronwyn |  July 1st, 2004 at 2:10 pm

    PJ:

    I’m already there.

  17. #17 |  Razor |  July 1st, 2004 at 3:07 pm

    The best skiing movie featuring an animated hamburger patty dancing to VH’s “Everybody Wants Some” is “Better Off Dead”.

  18. #18 |  actually |  July 1st, 2004 at 4:10 pm

    human evolution

  19. #19 |  Joe Sims |  July 1st, 2004 at 5:41 pm

    Razor,

    Bravo! That’s the spirit!!

    Better Off Dead is the best movie made about my generation…

  20. #20 |  actually |  July 1st, 2004 at 9:19 pm

    fucking rocketship

  21. #21 |  titus |  July 1st, 2004 at 11:16 pm

    actually,

    Thanks for the links.

    If I win the Megamillions tomorrow, I am buying that bike.