Customer Reviews

Blood Sweat + Gears: Racing Clean to the Tour de France

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I originally watched this documentary on the Sundance Channel. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it immensely and learned a lot about the sport of professional cycling. I am not a cycling fan. Nor do you need to be one to enjoy watching this documentary.

"Blood, Sweat + Gears" follows a relatively new pro-cycling team founded in 2007 named "Slipstream Chipotle". "Slipstream Chipotle" is looking to make it big in the world of professional cycling. The goal of this particular pro-cycling team is to have pro-cycling team where all of the cyclists are free of using sports enhancing drugs (doping has apparently become quite pervasive/common place in the pro-cycling circuit), gain major sponsorship, and be invited to participate in the Tour de France.

In this documentary, we see this team meet all of its goals. The team has a strong anti-doping program to help ensure clean cyclists. "Slipstream Chipotle" does receive major sponsorship from Garmin and the team becomes known as "Garmin Slipstream". "Garmin Slipstream" does receive the invitation to participate in the Tour de France where we are able to see their pro-cyclists participate in the 2008 Tour de France.

"Blood, Sweat + Gears" showcases some of "Garmin Slipstream's" major pro-cyclists: Christian Vande Velde, Michael Friedman, David Millar, and Magnus Backstedt and more.


The "Garmin Slipstream" team is lead by Jonathan Vaughters, a former professional cyclist, who is is currently the CEO of Slipstream Sports and the director of of the professional touring team.

The flow of "Blood, Sweat + Gears" is great. It was wonderful to see what it is like to train as a pro-cyclist, the pressure of the sport in general and and so on.

As a new cyclist I bought a few DVDs to learn and be entertained. Let me be clear, I can't watch the Tour de France on TV as it is too boring so I was looking for a story but also something I could speed through if necessary. NOT NECESSARY! This is very entertaining! The documentary is about the formation of a team to compete without doping with an initial side story of obtaining a sponsor. They get the sponsor fairly quickly, one of my favorite companies, Garmin. But where this documentary far exceeds expectations is the human interest stories it presents. An initial introduction of the team lets you see who are the stars. But when racing starts so do injuries, poor performances and incredible performances. Totally unpredictable and very enjoyable!

An example of this human interest is the side story of the American rider who continues to underacheive while followed by his Dad, always very positive about his son's performance, good or bad. At a break in training the son races to represent the USA in the Olympics. This side story manages to be heartbreaking and inspirational.

So why do I only rate this a 4? Well, there probably does need to be more riding or at a minimum, instead of showing team dinners maybe a little more training. That is the only negative for me. Otherwise, a worthwhile documentary that I STRONGLY recommend!

I enjoyed this video more than "Yell for Cadel" - both offer insights into professional cycling. I love to support the underdog(s)!

As an avid cyclist and racer I'm always interested in what goes on behind the scenes in the world of professional cycling. This is a great look into their world and gives a new look into the life of a cyclist dealing with drugs, winning losing, falling from grace and stepping up as a leader.