Wired to Win - new IMAX movie

(a variation of this was previously posted to the Daily Peloton forums)

One week ago, we had a stopover in Vancouver between the Greyhound back from Whistler and the airport - much better than spending an extra hour at the airport was walking across the street to see this movie at the "Telus World of Science" (we have one of those now in Edmonton too, but most people still refer to it as the Odyssium or even its previous name the "Space and Science Centre", just as I'm sure Vancouverites still talk about the "Expo Dome").

As a 45 minute IMAX film, using cycling to transition into explanations of brain function and chemistry, obviously they can't go into incredible depth about the cycling or the 2003 Tour de France - but both my husband and I thought they did a good job of explaining the basics of the Tour (eg. the different jersey competitions and that Baden Cooke's goal was different from Lance Armstrong's). And there were a number of oohs and ahs from the high school students on a school trip at some of the cycling shots and the comments in the film like "going downhill at speeds of 100 kmh" - cycling might actually pick up a few more fans.

The IMAX cycling shots were amazing - they did a lot of panoramic shots and distance shots, as well as stationary ones showing the point of view of a fan as the peloton goes by - that really conveyed the speed of the peloton (better than the usual TV shots from a car/motorcycle/helicopter going at the same speed as the cyclists, where you can't blame non-cycling-fans for sometimes thinking that they aren't really working hard/going fast). They used some non-IMAX footage as well (eg. Armstrong going down after catching his handlebar on a fan's bag - and coming back to win the stage, which in the film's context was an example of the power of the brain...). And of course there had to be a panoramic shot of the peloton going through a sunflower field ...

(and I usually find the TV shots when they go over the Tour route maps to be a bit dizzying - imagine the whole tour route done like that on a huge screen with zooming in and out)

For Tyler Hamilton fans (the movie was originally going to focus on him until he ran into legal trouble regarding alleged blood transfusions before racing, his case is still before the Court for Arbitration in Sport), they still had a few good shots of him (but didn't comment or mention who he was) - the main shot they showed of him was on a climb with his jersey open, shoulder/collarbone bandage visible, the voiceover was talking about working through pain but I think only cycling fans would understand the implication (he had broken collarbone yet still finished 4th overall in that Tour) as I'm not sure how obvious the bandage/evidence of injury would have been for others. And they gave special thanks to Tyler in the credits. (There was also a list of featured cyclists as well, that flashed by - prominence to Jimmy Casper and Baden Cooke but it looked like they listed everyone who was clearly identifiable in the cycling shots).

As for the 2 main featured cyclists, it was interesting to see shots of Casper abandoning (and about to have an MRI to rule out brain injury after his crash); and there was a sequence with Cooke in front of the team bus looking really depressed and unmotivated after losing the green jersey to Robbie McEwen... but then the power of the brain that he was able to win it back in the final sprint.

I was impressed with my husband that he was able to pick out as many cyclists as he did (I probably annoyed him with my whispers of "there's Ullrich", "there's Vino", "there's Robbie" etc )

As for the scientific/brain stuff, it was well done from the IMAX point of view but I can't really comment on how educational it was - to me it seemed incredibly simplistic, but that's likely because of my background (prior courses in biochemistry, physiology, neurology, neuroanatomy ...)

Anyway, if you get a chance to see it, I'd recommend it for the cycling shots in IMAX if you're into that sort of thing (but not if you want an in-depth look at the Tour).