Just received my copy of the “Overcoming” DVD today - the excellent movie/documentary on Team CSC’s Tour de France 2004.
In addition to the main feature, it contains a couple of things which didn’t make it into the feature film:
- The Mechanics
A spot on the mechanics, and trouble Riis is having them.
- 13 Stage (Plateau de Beille)
“Stage 13″ is a spot-cam on Riis and B.S. in the DS car during that pivotal stage. You get snippets fromt the “tactics talk” on the morning of the stage - interesting to me was the fact that Riis was still walking the balance between his two stars Basso and Sastre even after La Mongie (”Ivan - if you have the legs, you just have to go. Is that okay, Carlos?”). It contains a terrificaly close look at the Julich episode (where he crashes - ouch), as well as a near study of Riis’s reactions during and after the episode. It is clear that Riis is a shaken man. It also contains an interesting episode where Voigt is told to make it “hard for Rasmussen” (who is trying to join the breakaway). When Rabobank try to talk with Riis, Riis makes it clear that this is payback for Rasmussen riding away from Basso when the latter had mechanical in the Dauphine.
Then you have a quite interesting comment where Riis tells Ivan to be ready in case the Illes Balears boys try something - apparently, IB had forewarned Riis that Mancebo would attack. Conspiracy theorists, have fun. You get to watch Riis’s reactions as - one-by-one - the CSC boys drop back from the reducing peloton, and what he says to them as the pass by. Piil’s injury as well and the aftermath of the stage. It’s a fascinating portrait of life in the DS car - with all the stresses (and mistakes that get made under stress) evident.
As Bobby says on the way back to the Hotel. “It’s the 13th stage today.” There’s a pretty long after-stage talk between Julich and Riis where they try to hash out the episode (warning: the 4-letter word is used a lot as well) . This 15-minute extra feature is worth the price of the thing almost alone, IMO.
- The Spectators
Spot on the spectators at the TdF. Some pretty outrageous pics in there.
- Alpe d’huez
The defeat. Same as the stage 13 thing, but this time the focus is on how Riis and Basso react to the sting of the TT (Basso asks for the camera to be switched off for a while). One can really see how the defeat took it out of them - it’s obvious that up till that stage, they both believed that Basso might be able to do something. Basso: “I’d hoped I could do better, but I didn’t do that bad.”, trying to convince both Riis and himself. Riis’s answer: “It’s not good enough.”
- No help for Claus
C. Michael Möller - a Danish rider who wanted help from Riis’s “fameous” masseur Ole KÃ¥re Föli but was refused permission. Nationality vs Team interests.
- Carlife
Fun/interesting episodes from the team cars.
- Jens Voigt
Portrait of Jens Voigt. What can one say - excellent.
“I’m in the first line, I’m in the first line. I’m gonna get going…”
Treats the whole “Judas” episode. An interesting point also from the Voigt video is that it is obvious that not all of his famous breakaways are “sanctioned” by the boss, but Riis clearly prefers to keep Voigt happy and attacking, rather than reeling him in (even when he “privately” comments afterward: “Jens is nuts”.) It’s also got a fairly long spot on the Julich-Voigt relationship (and Julich is the narrator on the parts that Voigt don’t do).
Hate to be advertising, but (as already commented), the movie is great. The DVD is even better. The only thing I miss would be some more commentary on the whole doping morass (there is some in the main feature, but not very much). Of course, back when this was recorded (Jan - July 2004), the Cycling world was yet to be rocked by the big-name scandals.
You can buy this through the Team CSC webshop (for Region 2 DVDs - for Region 1, I understand you should go to Worldcycling.com), and its well worth the price.