So, I found an anime, which featured lots of cycling earlier today and since I didn't find a thread for cycling movies & interestig videos and I don't think it really fits into any other thread (like Movies & TV shows or Café Pedro), I think a new thread might just do the trick.
Basically a thread for all interesting or random cycling videos and movies you may stumble across in the internet, but which are not necessarily meant for News-threads, pro cycling discussions and so forth. So, well I'll make the start...
...no idea if this is commonly known in this forum but there's actually an anime about a spanish rider in the Vuelta. I was quite surprised and even more so when I read that it was the first anime apparently selected into the Cannes film festival. It's fun to watch and it's more accurate than some japanese football animes.
It's called Nasu: Summer in Andalusia and the anime and its sequel can be seen on youtube (with various subtitles).
Nasu: Summer in Andalusia follows the story of a professional Spanish cyclist, Pepe Benengeli, as he competes in the Vuelta a España road bicycle race through his home town in the Iberian region of Andalusia.
Be sure to activate subtitles!
Nasu: A Migratory Bird with Suitcase is a 2007 OVA by Madhouse, directed by Kitarō Kōsaka and featuring Ken'ichi Yoshida as animation director.It is a sequel to Nasu: Summer in Andalusia. Kōsaka and Yoshida were animation supervisors on Studio Ghibli on numerous titles, including Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. The Nasu universe is based on the manga Nasu created by Iou Kuroda.
Ha it's nice to see the show to be at least somewhat realistic.
At 14:24 they are actually showing echelons! Although reeling in a breakaway at the last 100m before the finish, that was 8 minutes ahead with 25k left to ride, with the breakaway still winning isn't that realistic.
Some nice jerseys and brands from the 1998-2001 era showing:
So, I watched The Program, the film about Lance Armstrong. Ofc the Texan still continues to be an interesting character in a complex grippling narrative that has well spanned over a decade. I watched the documentary about Lance a few months back, The Program follows right there. However the script is at times rather dull due to the time scope of the story but it involves lots of stuff. I also really liked how they set up the races, lots of original stuff from back then included (jerseys, results).
When the trailer was first published I made quite some fun of it because the actor looked kinda dumb, but he does an excellent job. Same goes for the guys who play Bruyneel, Stapelton and obviously Landis. I'd recommend it to see, but it's ofc a movie about L.A. and not so much about cycling or doping, although both plays a pivot role in it.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Overcoming about Team CSC and Bjarne Riis at the 2004 Tour is my favourite team documentary.
I learned couple new things about that Tour when watching it last year. The Alpe D'Huez timetrial they show Basso being very concentrated before the start while Armstrong was very calm chatting with the gendarmes. On the climb Armstrong had a clear way through because the gendarmes stayed much closer to him while Basso constantly had to work his way through fans on the road.
Also with in car images of Riis riding over Bobby Julich
I watched "The Program". It's certainly been drama'd up for Hollywood. An avid cycling fan won't find too much of interest there that can't be found in other source materials which are frankly better. For a novice or casual cyclist it's not too bad, but recommendations are still to look at other books and documentaries first.
"The Armstrong Lie" was interesting, being another recent Armstrong film. An actual documentary but unfortunately a lot of what could be interesting is yet to come out because it will still fall under statute of limitations (i.e. his comeback). The slightly different angle makes it more unique and watchable than a number of other recent Armstrong films/tv shows.