In Review: Road to Roubaix (2008)

It’s late and I’m tired, so I’m going to cheat and quote from the 2009 BigPond Adelaide Film Festival program notes for this one.

“If you know bikes, you need no explanation of Paris-Roubaix, the greatest and the toughest one-day classic in world cycling. The famed 260 kilometer race over a brutally difficult cobblestone surface … is a race known as the Hell of the North which requires, as one competitor puts it, “an immense appetite for the physical toll the race can take.”

And there is this: “Here’s your testosterone hit for the festival: the poor hopeful fools in the breakaway, the implacable peloton, the dreams and bikes broken on the cobblestones, the vanquished riders coated in blood, dust and sweat.”

Unfortunately, the program promised much – but Road to Roubaix delivered little.

OK, maybe I am being too harsh, but this is definitely one for the aficionado's. At 75 minutes, this documentary spent far too much time talking to the riders, officials, and other key players in international road racing, and far too little time on the real action taking place on the cobbled Paris to Roubaix route.

Maybe the co-directors, Dave Cooper and David Deal didn’t have permission to get close enough to the action to film the actual event, and had to make do with a mix of television footage, historical photographs, and other vision to fill out their story.

Not that the story isn’t compelling.

Stars of the past and present, including Lance Armstrong, Sean Kelly, George Hincapie, and Tom Boonen, all give insights into the gruelling ordeal. One star who was not interviewed, was Adelaide rider Stuart O’Grady, who threw everything at the 2007 Roubaix – the background to this film – and went on to win it.

After the dark subject matter of the first two films reviewed above (Three Monkeys and Vacation), Road to Roubaix was a pleasant enough way to wind down my marathon movie viewing session for the day.

Two Stars
Image courtesy of 2009 BigPond Adelaide Film Festival

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