Re: Tour de France - Legends of the Race DVD giveaway
Posted: Fri Jun 28, 2013 3:44 pm
For sheer dominance, Merckx, for winning eight stages in 1970 and again in 1974. For doomed heroism, Ocana.
Is the DVD the same as was shown on SBS on Friday night? It is a difficult task to squeeze 99 tours into 120 minutes, but the start was fantastic, making good use of the no doubt limited footage. I was a little disappointed with the coverage of the 60s and 70s. A large chunk of time was spent on Poulidor who finished on the podium 8 times featured as the star of his losing battles with Anquetil who featured only as a caricature villain. Yes Anquetil used drugs - he openly said so, but to suggest that Poulidor, who was able to gain time on Anquetil in the mountains, was as pure as the driven snow didn't sit well with me
But Anquetil got more coverage than the other 5 times winners, Merckx & Hinault. Most of the coverage of Merckx was that he was hated by the French crowds & that he was punched in the kidney in 1975, with no real exploration as to why. The coverage of Hinault focussed on his team mate LeMond, insinuating that Hinault cheated LeMond out of victory in 1985 and tried to cheat him again in 1986.
I don't know how the last 1/2 hour went as I had lost interest by that time.
I did enjoy the way it explored recurring themes from the 1st tour being cheating, drugs, politics and commercialisation - I didn't know for example that the commercial caravan had started way back in 1930.