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the road to roubaix dvd £19.95 masterlink films
i have no idea what others do when they're reviewing dvds; generally i have a pen and paper at the ready to scribble notes and those incredibly brilliant one liners that i never have while watching. only this documentary was so cotton picking absorbing, that the end credits were running and my hand was still holding the pen, mid word. and the worst part is, i'm not sure what the word was. i'm not much one for swearing, whatever the occasion, but this is ****ing brilliant.
watch as tom boonen ambles his way through a pressing stream of autograph hunters pre-race, calmly and cheerfully signing everything placed in front of him. watch again as 2007 winner, stuey o'grady walks almost as many kilometres to the team bus as he's just ridden across the cobbles. and after pedalling across those huge chunks of rock for 160 miles, happily posing for photographs with folk that presumably have no business being there in the first place. david deal and david cooper of masterlink films have made one heck of a movie about one of the finest, if not the finest race in the cycling season. it's a point well made throughout the film, by several of the participants; those who dream of a win in the roubaix velodrome are generally a lot less interested in the three week tours. peter van petegem for instance, though it's obviously possible to do both. interviewee sean kelly one of the prime examples. eddie merckx' mechanic, julienne devriesse, at the point of creation, a mechanic with discovery channel team; 'you're either a rider for paris-roubaix, or you're not'.
thankfully, those are qualities not necessarily applicable to those on this side of the screen. it's a fabulous race to watch on tv, even better if you have the opportunity to stand by the side of the cobbled roads, and finally rounded out to satisfaction by this film. it's an eccentric mix of interviews too; tim kolln and camille mcmillan, two photographers who have contributed so artfully to rouleur since its inception, as well as the editor of same, guy andrews and regular contributor, johnny green, tellingly wearing a tour de france pin badge on his lapel, all the while professing undying love for roubaix. all encompassing is cycling.
the choice of riders is also eclectic. yes, there's tom boonen and peter van petegem, but contrasted by ('it's insane) lance armstrong, a rider who never took the compiegne start line throughout his career (regrettably, if his words are to be believed). juan antonio flecha, who crossed the line in roubaix almost a minute behind o'grady, gert steegmans, marc madiot, max van heeswijk, all conspire to make this an overwhelmingly, well considered documentary.
prize for the most unfortunate interview has to go to lampre's alessandro ballan, camera in his face in front of a team bus running a rather lound engine of some sort. thankfully, ballan's answers are in italian, so we have the benefit of english subtitles to 'hear' his roubaix wisdom.. the latter part of the film is a cleverly edited, monochrome overview of stuey's 2007 paris roubaix, the hours in the showers, and even tim kolln photographing those incredible post race shots in front of a large white background.
like all the best movies, road to roubaix will bear repeated viewing, because much like a joni mitchell album, you'll always find bits you missed the first, second and probably eleventh time round. the aptly atmospheric music was especially commissioned for the occasion, composed and performed by paul o'brien - as important as the moving pictures in my humble opinion. quite insane - i had shivers down my spine watching much of this.
road to roubaix will be exclusively sold in the uk by prendas ciclismo at £19.95 with stocks due in the early september. in the rest of the world, orders can be placed via the masterlink films website ($27.95 plus postage).
prendas ciclismo | masterlink films
posted on monday 11th august
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................aye tunes
i have no wish for you all to break out the violins and open boxes of tissues on my behalf, so i'll do my best not to cause you to read much about the loneliness of the long-distance cycle tester, and how onerous it is on my part to garb oneself in a wide variety of highly desirable clothing for the appropriate season, clambering aboard yet another absurdly expensive set of wheels and exotic frame, that you might be better edificated as to what to spend your kids' inheritance on. it does take many years of training to wipe the ear-to-ear grin from that weatherbeaten face, and inculcate an air of blase indifference, something i have miserably failed to do. yes, anything that arrives at washingmachinepost towers for review generally brings on that kid in a sweet shop sense of joy that you'd think would have worn a bit thin by now.
however, the reality is that waiting several days until the amount of wind, lack of temperature and amount of precipitation is just present in the right amount, before donning or riding the previously mentioned sent items prior to the readable html, is just as fun and exciting as ever it was. if i wasn't obsessed by bicycles and their associated paraphernalia then i'd have given this up a long time ago, because it is never going to give me that holiday home in tuscany that i've had my metaphorical eye on for many a kilometre.
so it therefore presents a far different challenge to write a review when sitting in front of my macbook pro, with no need or desire to move an inch from the comfort of the armchair to studiously examine every last millimetre of the item in question. it is, in fact, a bright sunny day outside, though still bearing that 40kph wind, but i have no need of venturing any further than here in order to complete this review. last august, i had the pleasure of receiving an advance copy of the movie, the road to roubaix, a movie i subsequently smallenated and added to my ipod touch, that it can be watched whenever the fancy takes me; and it is with some clever timing that the excellent soundtrack from the movie, by paul o'brien, has been released in digital format, currently on amazon, but eventually from itunes too.
while the tide does seem to be changing for the better, much of the accompanying music on cycling dvd and video was, at one time, crass to put not too fine a point on it. granted, in the world of low or non-existent budgets, it can be hard to find appropriate, royalty free music in the length and quantity required, but the directors of road to roubaix had the great perspicacity, and presumably the budget, to commission mr o'brien to write music specifically for the charge across the cobbles, and a more suitable accompaniment it would be hard to find. however, there can't be many of us who have not enjoyed a movie so much that we rushed out to buy the soundtrack only to find that it carries a lot less weight when there are no pictures to aid the meme.
happily, sat here in my leather armchair (all those who aspire to write have to do so in a leather armchair), i am now on my second time through the nine tracks of which the original motion picture soundtrack consists, and there will probably be a third time when this round finishes. of course you can preview a short section of each track on amazon, but if you have had any exposure to the music of steve reich, philip glass, or john adams, then you're half way to understanding the style of which this inhabits. if you are already in possession of the dvd, or were fortunate enough to watch on the big screen, it should be a no-brainer to click over to amazon and download for a pleasurable weekend's listening.
as highly recommended as the movie.
paul obrien's original motion picture soundtrack from 'road to roubaix' is available on amazon.co.uk for £6.99 and from amazon.com for $8.91. it will also be available on itunes in a couple of months, but downloads from amazon will happily play on an ipod. the dvd is still available from prendas at a cost of £19.95.
posted on friday april 17 2009
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