Muggaccinos cycle movie/meal night, 6:15pm Friday, 17 June

Kate Marley aka Flaxen, who works for www.CyclingNews.com, saw the preview of the cycling "documentary" movie, "Hell on Wheels".   Two weeks ago it began showing at Valhalla Cinema (02) 9660.8050 166 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe.   As the below SMH review explains, it focuses on Germany's Team Telekom campaign in the 2003 Tour de France.  Kate was captivated with the starkness and courage which you don’t see on edited TdeF footage.  Kate recommends it to any red blooded cyclist because this doco shows 'inter alia' the drama and misfortune not often featured in the world's most watched annual sporting spectacle.  Ian aka Flash, Pete aka Rummager, Pete aka Gobbler 'n Ange and Ros aka Rocket have also attended the Valhalla and been engrossed by the spectacle and drama of the arduous 22 day campaign.

Click here for promo of Hell on Wheels, incl link to short movie footage.  Or view movie trailer here
 

Muggaccinos invites all cycling aficionados to see this movie on Friday evening 17 June as an appetiser to this years TdeF which commences on 2nd July at Fromentine on the NW coast of France and follows a clockwise route around France finishing back on the lower West coast in Mulhouse on 24th July.

The movie commences at 6:15pm this Friday, 17 June and finishes at 8:10pm. The "Ancient Briton Hotel" is on Car of Pyrmont Bridge Rd and Glebe Point Rd - only 25m from Bogarts.  A table up stairs at "Bogart Italian Seafood Restaurant" 199 Glebe Point Road Glebe -  9692.0936 -for 15 is booked with Chris for 9pm. Our booking is in name of "Johnston" or "Muggaccinos" .  The restaurant is "BYO Wine Only" - with a cover charge.  You can probably sit down from 8:30pm if you want to.

If you know any cyclists from other ride groups, invite 'em to join us. Tickets are $14.50.   If you want a seat at Bogarts from 9pm e-mail ScribePJ@tpg.com.au.  The movie is 2 hrs and there is an optional 30 min pub visit to break-up the 5 min walk from #166 Glebe Point Rd to #199 for the restaurant.  If the gore of close-up footage of a few nasty bingles which occurred in the 2003 TdeF becomes too much, or the prospect of 2 hrs focusing on Team Telekom falling shy of the coveted trophy sends you nodding-off, you can adjourn to the rubbidy dub early.  Those who have indicated their attendance incl, but are not limited to, -

            3          Pete aka Yamaha, Lynda and Steve
            1          Caroline Smale aka Princess Caroline

            1          Tony aka Samurai
            1          Phil aka Bank Teller
            1          Graeme Woodward
            1          Tony McDonald aka Publican
            1          Terry aka Navigator - not attending restaurant
            1          John Langley aka Auckland
            2          Robert Hamblen aka DeathRide and wife
            3          Mark Carrington aka LongHaul, Debs and Frances
            2          Arno aka Heineken

            1          Grant aka BeanCounter

            1          David aka Maverick
 

Risk Warning:  Most Muggs imbibe a jar or two over a meal to be sociably, so leave you car at home and rely on public transport or a cab.

Reproduced hereunder is the Sydney Morning Herald Review .

HELL ON WHEELS
Director: Pepe Danquart
Stars Erik Zabel, Rolf Aldag, Andreas Kloden
Rated PG
 

Finally a sports film that captures the reality. Hell on Wheels shows all the agony of the Tour de France.  Pepe Danquart has a tip for anyone who wants to make a film about sport. Before you start, know as little as possible.

 

"I had never been to a cycling race," says Danquart, the writer-director of an eye-opening doco about the Tour de France called Hell On Wheels.

 

"I never had a special interest in cycling. I was just asked to do the movie by the head of a German TV and cinema firm, because I had first done a movie about ice hockey, which was a tremendous success here."  Back in 2000 when Danquart embarked on Heimspiel (Home Game), he wasn't much of an ice hockey fan, either.

 

"I'd never been in an ice-hockey stadium before I did that," he says.  "Actually, I'm not a sports fan at all."

 

It's a surprising admission, until you realise that his innocence is an asset. Danquart's objectivity about cycling explains why Hell On Wheels (Hollentour) is such an impressive two-hour doco. Approaching his subject without prejudice or zealotry, the Berlin filmmaker has made something for a general audience, not just pedal pushers.

 

"With my naive eyes, because I'm not a fan or specialist, I could see lots of things others couldn't see," he says.

 

Hell On Wheels is an account of the 2003 Tour de France - the 100th tour - as seen through the eyes of Germany's Team Telekom. It shows Erik Zabel, Rolf Aldag and team-mates chasing greats such as American Lance Armstrong and another German, Jan Ullrich.

 

As well as surviving the gruelling sprints, time trials and mountain stages, Zabel et al are shown engaging in their daily rituals: nattering on the phone to overcome boredom and nerves; having their aching muscles massaged; lubricating their bike pants to prevent chafing; eating pasta for breakfast; and shaving their legs, so that the gravel rash is less serious if they fall.

 

As the film reveals, tumbles and spills are unavoidable. During the tour, the average rider can expect to fly over the handle bars two or three times. Zabel talks about scrubbing his open wounds with a brush after falls to extract the gravel.  Danquart also goes behind the scenes, examining the logistical nightmare of the 2500 cars and trucks needed to stage the huge event.

 

His crews show the ubiquitous support vehicles, the police vainly trying to control crowds and the zany fans in their campervans.

 

Finally, he splices into this mix archival footage and anecdotes from the event's colourful history. It turns out the Tour de France has had more interesting characters than the Chinese language, including the champion rider who took a nap under a tree, then awoke hours later, only to set off in the wrong direction.

 

"The story of the Tour de France is the story of legends," Danquart says.   "In 1903, going 5000 kilometres by bike was like going to the moon. People then knew nothing about France. But it's changed rapidly. Now the materials get better every year, with bikes like spaceships, and the competition is also greater. The difference between the first 10 riders is so small."

 

Among the most interesting aspects of the film is that members of Team Telekom have a nightmarish tour, replete with injuries, illness and disappointing results. One rider completes eight stages after breaking his coccyx only to pull out. Another can barely breathe through a cold.

 

"Today is one of the days I can't stand it," Zabel says at one point. "Ooh la la, why didn't I become a surfer?"

 

Danquart says his film became an exploration of suffering, an examination of how and why the contestants put themselves through hell for 22 days.

"I was interested in the rear of the peloton [the pack of riders]," he says. "I was interested in the tears. The tears in the car that picks up those who give up - which no TV station over the world will show. This race means suffering as you did at the start of your career.  I was interested in what it means to do this, and what the team means, and the relations between the individuals on the team. I wanted to show the intimacy of two guys running the hardest race in world."

One of the film's key characters is the team trainer, Eule. Forget the mystic masseur; this guy is the sadistic masseur. In the riders' suffering, he says, there is courage, stamina, loyalty, modesty and love.

"It's like religious suffering," Eule says.  "It's beautiful."  To properly explore this suffering, Danquart needed to establish a profound level of trust with his team.

"I was riding with them for 11/2 years, in front of them without a camera, to get the intimacy I did get in the end," he says.  "While riding the Tour de France, for them to let the film crew this near, even to be in the bathroom filming them shaving their legs, or having breakdowns as their pulse is at 200 [beats per minute], that means a lot of trust.  I was part of the team. While filming, I was in the car, on the bike and also on the bus, always close to my team. And now I'm still friends with Erik and Rolf and all the others."

Danquart spent two years researching his film, which he claims is the first of its kind in nearly 50 years.

 

"The last movies I know about the Tour de France were done in the '60s," he says.  "And doing this was a huge, huge, huge work. At first it was extremely difficult to get permission. Getting accreditation is like getting a ticket for the first row on Oscar night, and we wanted 20, because I had six cameras and teams.  So I was working for two years to get all the permission I needed and to get all the trust of the riders. The year before I filmed I went to the Tour and kept a diary.  Logistically, I worked with every trick I could. I had little finger cameras implanted in cars, endoscopic medical cameras ... and in the end I had 70 hours of material shot."

 

One topic left untouched is drug abuse.  Danquart says that is because he didn't see any evidence of performance-enhancing substances: "If it had been 1998, when the big doping scandal happened, then it would have been a doping film, but I had another topic: the suffering."

 

Two years after filming, Danquart is pleased Hell on Wheels is gaining an Australian release, given the success of Australian riders Robbie McEwen and Shane Kelly in the tour.  McEwen features in the film, with even Zabel admitting he is overawed by the Aussie's sprinting skills. Overall, though, Danquart is just pleased he made his film.

"It was one of most interesting tours ever, with the tension between Ullrich and Armstrong up to the end. And it was the 100th. And though Erik fell down, it was such an interesting year, so I was happy. I was a winning guy. I was a winner like everyone who reaches Paris."