January 17/11 16:58 pm - Chasing Legends Canadian Premiere on February 2nd

Posted by Editor on 01/17/11
 

The Canadian premiere of the Tour de France movie Chasing Legends will take place on February 2nd at Cineplex theatres across Canada. This is a unique chance to see a cycling film on the big screen.

We were fortunate enough to receive a preview copy of Ken Bell's latest feature. The film covers the 2009 Tour de France, the year that Lance Armstrong came out of retirement. This was an excellent year for the Tour, with the battle between Armstrong, his team mate Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck.

While much of the race footage will be familiar to anyone who followed the Tour on TV, what makes this film special is the access the film makers were given by Team HTC-Columbia. HTC-Columbia allowed the film crew into their team cars, team bus and hotel rooms, offering a unique and rare behind the scenes look at how a team runs.

We got to see the plans the team made before and during stages, and joy when Mark Cavendish took his five stage victories. We saw the crushing disappointment when George Hincapie missed grabbing the Yellow Jersey by a mere five seconds, plus the discussion about why Garmin-Slipstream worked to deny him this honour.

There are multiple interviews with members of the HTC-Columbia team (riders and staff), plus Lance Armstrong, Jens Voigt (always one of the best), Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen, cycling great Eddy Merckx, and an incredible one with 97 year old Pierre Cogan, the oldest living Tour de France rider, who raced his first Tour in 1935, fought in the Second World War (and was a POW), before returning post-War to finish seventh in 1950. His final Tour was in 1951.

Bell manages to capture both the excitement of the Tour and the effort that it demands. It should be spectacular on the big screen.

For a complete list of Cineplex theatres showing Chasing Legends, click Here.

For the opportunity to win one of ten pairs of tickets to the premiere, please fill out our Online Survey.

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