The weather goes crazy, coins go crazy. From minus 12° to 18° in three days. Tonight it's freezing again and freshly made crypto millionaires are buying doggy coins. Welcome to the spring of 2021: vaccination freeze, schools open, stores closed again, masks on - welcome to the season finale of the pandemic. And because everything is about the wheel anyway - here's a list of selected cycling films, for @ home on the sofa, just do nothing wrong - for a moment...
Riding Uphill ガチ星
By: Kan Eguchi, Runtime: 106 min, Year: 2018
Watch here: Amazon Prime (US only).
I haven't watched Japanese movies in far too long. After the first few minutes, the film delivers on the mood the trailer promises. If you still have enough nerves for OMU, you'll definitely grab the rest of the drama!
Synopsis: Riding Uphill is a story about men funnelling emotional hardship and recovering from personal failure through physical endurance. Set in Kita-Kyushu in Fukuoka, the home of keirin cycling culture, the film offers a glimpse into the competitive mindset and training of competitive cycling.
Three Peaks & In Between
By: Stephan Wieser, with: Jana Kesenheimer, Runtime: 64 min, Year: 2020
Watch here: Vimeo on Demand
Recommendation by Johanna: One of the few races that could take place in 2020 is the "Three Peaks Bike Race". An unsupported ultra race from Vienna to Nice, where there are different control points between which the riders build themselves a route. At the beginning of the year the film "Three Peaks & in Between" by Stephan Wieser about Jana Kesenheimer's race was released. It is basically a contradiction in terms to accompany a female rider in a self-support bikepacking race, but I personally would not want to miss this great film. Stephan Wieser and his team accompany Jana already during her preparation and then the complete race. The organizer set the rules for this beforehand. We get beautiful pictures of impressive landscapes and are both at the heights, as well as the depths of such an ultra race brings with it. Several times I had goose bumps moments. The film is really well made. It makes mega desire to cycling and the accompaniment of Jana is exciting. I usually only know films in which parts of the race are depicted. You can tell that Stephan comes from advertising. Everything is somehow "beautiful" and in a way "perfect". A few scenes, e.g. how Jana solves her mechanical problems, I would have liked to have in the film, because just that I find exciting.
Nevertheless, an absolute recommendation from me! Jana Kesenheimer is an impressive and inspiring woman, the film makes simply good mood and at least with me it was in such a way that I would have liked to climb afterwards immediately on the bike. No, I would have loved to ride the "Three Peaks Bike Race" right away.
For more background info, check out Johannas podcast Die Wundersame Fahrradwelt mit Jana Kesenheimer - Das Three Peaks Bike Race und was dazwischen geschah (german only)
Biking Borders
By: Max Jabs, with: Nono Konopka, Max Jabs, Runtime: 90 min, Year: 2021
Watch here: Netflix and Amazon Prime
The film has already been reviewed across the mainstream media and is anything but an insider's tip. Nono and Max, at first glance aren't the two guys I absolutely have to watch for longer than a YouTube video when they're in "super grateful" daylie vlog mode. And somehow it's not about cycling at all, but about collecting donations and building a school. And somehow these two guys have understood how to turn a crazy fundraising campaign into a communication event and a business. They also seem to have understood how to evaluate a story well afterwards. Somehow such guys get on my nerves sometimes and somehow projects appear with a constant regularity, which work according to a similar principle, with a similar mindset and are often similarly successful. But that doesn't change the fact that they rode around the fucking world on bicycles, financed two schools instead of one, and that it's fun to watch people on bicycles having adventures and rising above themselves. The film is really recommendable, the two go through an amazing development, purely outwardly but also character-wise. Accompanying the two makes you want to travel and do good projects... Well done Max & Nono!
Ps: By the way, since last week they funded another school!
Onboard the Transcontinental Race
By: Antonin Michaud-Soret, Year: 2020 | Photos: James Robertson
Watch here: Vimeo on Demand
Because Antonin has not only made a good film about the Transcontinental Race, but is also a pretty nice guy, he is giving out 30 Vimeo codes for Radpropaganda.org readers with which you can watch the film for free. #happylockdown. To get the code just subscribe to our newsletter and leave a comment below this post. Edit: All codes are on their way to you. Enjoy!
"At the sharp end it is a beautifully hard bicycle race, simple in design but complex in execution."
But the Transcontinental Race is rarely a race against fellow competitors, nor against oneself. It is, primarily, a race for oneself. To ride the TCR is to explore who you become at the side of a road in the Alps or the Balkans, low on sleep, lucidity, hygiene and any notion of comfort. In the saddle, rolling over rough tarmac sixteen or eighteen hours a day, finding what exists beyond fatigue and exhaustion. Do you scratch? Get the train home? Or discover and escape from everything that has been holding you back. There is everything Antonin, the director, has collected, through the eyes of the photographers, James Robertson and Camille Mcmillan, Mike Hall & Anna Haslock, and Matthieu, cap 109, a cyclist who fights a very personal battle simply to complete the race. The TCR is much more than a race, it’s a complete experience. Here, filmed during 3 races from 2016 to 2018, Onboard will immerse you in the unique experience that is the Transcontinental Race.
Follow: http://instagram.com/antonin_ahstudio/ | http://onboardtcrfilm.cc
Into the Rift – Atlas Mountain Race
By: Brady Lawrence, Runtime: 40 min, Year: 2020
Watch here: YouTube
In 2018, we featured three episodes of Brady and Sebastian's Morocco trip on Radpropaganda.org. Last year, Brady reported back from the desert once again and presented his new film about the Atlas Mountain Race in an online premiere in the first Lockdown. The PEdALED Atlas Mountain Race is an 'unsupported' bike race through Morocco. It starts in Marrakech and finishes some 1145 kilometers later in Sidi Rabat, a village on the Atlantic coast. The route winds almost entirely on unpaved roads with about 20,000 meters of elevation gain through the Atlas and Antiatlas Mountains. Beautiful nature, worth seeing and impressive under what conditions were filmed and ridden here. Into the Rift' was awarded as "best event documentation 2020" by bikepacking.com.
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The original post appeared on radpropaganda.org (in german) and is translated for read.cash
