The movie
Lance Armstrong's seventh
consecutive Tour de France win in 2005 was historic and
unprecedented, so for that reason alone the 2005 Tour certainly has a
place in the annals of bicycle racing. But was it as exciting as it
was historic? Well... not really. The most exciting races are the
ones that are hotly contested down to the wire, like the 1989
Tour with LeMond vs. Fignon or the 2003
Tour with Armstrong vs. a very strong Ullrich. In 2005, Armstrong
stamped his domination on the race from the very first stage of the
race - quite literally - so there was much less to be excited about
as the race unfolded over its full three weeks. Fortunately for
viewers, though, World Cycling Productions has done a really
outstanding job of presenting the race on DVD (easily the best Tour
program they've put together), so it ends up being entertaining
almost despite itself.
Armstrong was the clear favorite
coming into the race, despite the fact that the returning champion
had not won a single race all season: everyone knew that he was
making the Tour his one objective for the year, and training
accordingly. His Discovery Channel team (now that US Postal has bowed
out as a sponsor) is just as loaded with talented super-domestiques
as always, with the supporting cast including George Hincapie, Manual
Beltran, Paolo Savoldelli, Jose Azevedo, and the talented young
Yaroslav Popovych. Team CSC, one of the main challengers for
Armstrong, fields Ivan Basso as the leader, while T-Mobile, the only
other seriously challenging squad, pinned all their hopes on Jan
Ullrich, whose one Tour win (pre-Armstrong) has grown ever more
distant in the face of repeated second places.
It's from T-Mobile that we get the
most active, aggressive, and all-around fantastic rider of the
Tour... but it's not Ullrich. Instead, it's his teammate Alexandre
Vinokourov. Cycle racing fans will recognize Vinokourov as a real
fighter, one who's never content with just following wheels or
minimizing time losses. No, Vino wants to be out there, forcing the
splits, daring the elite riders to catch up with him, and just in
general mixing things up. He's a breath of much-needed fresh air in a
Tour whose tactics over the past seven years have been dominated by
Armstrong's "gain an advantage and hold it with my squad of
super-domestiques" approach, with most of the other riders not
daring to attack for fear of losing their second or third place on
the podium.
So if there's one rider who makes
the 2005 Tour exciting, it's Vinokourov, with Phonak's Oscar Pereiro
also standing out as a rider willing to go out on a breakaway and
make things happen, instead of conservatively riding in the leading
group. Interestingly, there's a hint at one point of some internal
tension in T-Mobile: at one point Vinokourov attacks from the front
of a select group... and it's Ullrich who chases him down, bringing
up Armstrong behind him. Hm.
Conspicuous in his absence from the
Tour was T-Mobile's Erik Zabel, the winner of six consecutive green
jerseys for most consistent finisher in the Tour de France. It wasn't
that Zabel was ill or injured, but rather that T-Mobile didn't want
him on the Tour squad, perhaps fearing that it would dilute their
focus on getting Ullrich in yellow. (While the eternally amiable
Zabel has been cordial about the whole thing, it's fairly certain
that this was a factor in Zabel's decision to switch teams next year,
despite being on Telekom/T-Mobile for his entire pro career up to
this point.) That opened up the points competition, and the sprints,
to more riders, such as Mapei's young superstar Tom Boonen, the
Australian Brad McGee (riding for Française des Jeux),
Davitamon-Lotto's Robbie McEwan, and Credit Agricole's Thor Hushovd,
not to mention Cofidis' Stewart O'Grady, always a fighter. A touch of
"argy-bargy" in some of the sprint finishes makes things a
little tense, and the difficult finishing straights are an issue at
times as well. Of more interest is the fact that some of the crucial
stages don't end up in bunch sprints at all, but rather have a
breakaway hanging on to the bitter end. I'm sure I'm not the only one
who cheers on the brave soul who dares the peloton
to chase him, knowing that he'll probably get caught; it's great to
see a daring break succeed.
The king of the mountains
competition, as usual, wasn't nearly as hotly contested as the green
jersey competition. What livens it up is the attempt by Michael
Rasmussen, wearing the polka-dot jersey, to keep the podium position
that he had unexpectedly gotten into. As for the general
classification... well, after the first stage, a lengthy time trial
instead of a short prologue, it's basically in the bag, and even the
mountains are no more than a formality.
In the four-hour DVD program of the
2005 Tour de France, World Cycling Productions has really done an
excellent job of presenting the race in its very best light. While
the race itself doesn't offer that much to work with, WCP's
presentation is easily the best they've done so far.
To begin with, the editing is
handled extremely well. With four hours of coverage overall, we get
exactly the right amount of time spent on each stage, with great
capsule summaries of the action early in the stage, before we're
taken directly into the action. On top of that, the footage is often
discreetly edited to skip over portions with no action, like lengthy
downhills, so that there's a continual sense of being in the middle
of the action without missing anything important. This is the
direction that WCP has been going in for the past few years in its
Tour coverage, and to good effect.
As has been the case with most of
the Tour DVDs, WCP's team of commentators
Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen provide the running commentary for the
racing action, and as always do a very good job of it. Gary Imlach
returns as the host and field reporter, doing a solid job of
providing an overview of each stage and summarizing early action
before handing off the commentary to Liggett and Sherwen. A new and
welcome addition to the commentary staff in this Tour is Chris
Boardman, who was known as the "prologue specialist" of the
Tour during his successful career in the pro peloton. Boardman
discusses the Tour with Imlach, giving us a useful "inside"
insight into riders' tactics. He seems quite comfortable on-camera
and presents informational material in a clear and straightforward
manner; I hope we'll see more of Boardman on other WCP productions.
Another improvement in the overall
Tour coverage is the fact that several of the "human interest"
pieces done for the program are included as bonus features, rather
than being sandwiched into the main program. This is a very good
idea, as it allows the main program to stay more focused on the
racing action, and lets viewers dip into the ancillary material at
will. It's not handled perfectly, as there's still a fair amount of
material in the main program that should have been cut out and put as
special features, such as a long retrospective on Armstrong's Tour victories, and his podium speech. But certainly
the main Tour program here another step forward in being polished and
viewer-friendly.
One feature that's great to see in
the main program is a lot of rider interviews, and the 2005 Tour does
a nice job with this. We get post-stage interviews with a variety of
riders, including non-English-speaking ones who get their interviews
subtitled. This is a nice feature that really helps give a
well-rounded view of the action. The stage and general
classifications are updated after each stage, and viewers are also
kept fully abreast of the king of the mountains and green jersey
standings.
All in all, while I can't say that
the 2005 Tour had a lot of action, there's enough here to make the
four-hour coverage worth watching, especially if you're a fan of the
Grand Tours.
The DVD
WCP's release of the four-hour 2005
Tour de France is a two-disc set, with both discs attractively
packaged in a slim single-wide keepcase.
Unfortunately, the menu design leaves a lot to be desired. After you
pop in the disc, there's a long delay while we stare at a static
image of Armstrong... and then the menu itself takes its sweet time
to display the selection choices. That wouldn't be so bad, except
that while you're waiting for the "play" selection to
appear on-screen, the background starts displaying spoiler images for
stages of the Tour!
On the bright side, the chapters are
well done, with one per stage, and with the stages listed by location
and distance, with no spoilers mentioned in the chapter titles. The
DVD cover (both front and back) is also colorful and happily
spoiler-free (well, it reveals who wins the Tour, but even I will
concede that everyone knows that).
Video
The 2005 Tour de France coverage
appears in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio, as it was broadcast on
television. The image quality is excellent: not "excellent"
as in feature-film quality, but certainly extremely good for material
that had to be taken from live television footage captured on the
road. The image is crisp and clean, with colors looking bright and
vibrant. It's always easy to pick out the colors of the jerseys in
the bunch, which is a big issue in a cycling DVD. Even picture
break-up (which comes from the source material, not the DVD transfer)
is rarely to be seen. All in all, it's a very nice production.
Audio
The Dolby stereo sound is handled
very well here. The voiceovers are always
clear and easy to understand, while the race ambiance is generally
held to a level that adds a good background flavor without taking
over the soundtrack. The overall sound is full and clean.
Extras
The special features start out with
the start list printed on the inside of the DVD cover, visible
through the clear plastic case. In a nice touch this year, a
miniature jersey with the team's colors is printed beside each start
list. That's really quite helpful, not just for new cycle racing fans
but also for veteran fans, since there are always some changes in the
jersey designs each season. (I'd still love to see stage profiles in
an insert, but we haven't gotten there yet.)
Additional special features are
included on both discs. On Disc 1, there's a reasonably interesting
3-minute piece on the "super slo-mo" camera used at the
stage finishes, and another short piece on "Yellow Jerseys." On this
disc, there's also a Tour map, which provides a 3-minute animated
presentation of the race route.
Disc 2 has several more special
features. "Bjarne Riis" is a 2-minute piece on the previous
Tour winner who now directs the CSC team. "Col du Galibier"
(also 2 minutes) is an interesting short history of the famous climb.
The disc wraps up with a 5-minute "Armstrong Photo Tribute"
slide show, and a section of "Extra Stuff" that suggests
buying other race DVDs.
It's worth noting that while the
special features aren't extensive, they're all fresh material that
does not appear in the main program, so they're definitely worth
checking out.
Final thoughts
The 2005 Tour de France isn't one of
the more exciting editions of the race, given that Armstrong totally
dominated it from the start, but thanks to WCP's nicely edited
coverage, the four-hour DVD edition is an entertaining viewing
experience. Except for the most die-hard of Lance Armstrong fans, I'd
say that this four-hour edition is superior to the extended 12-hour
edition; we get all of the interesting moments, well edited and well
presented so that the dull sections are discreetly skipped over. It's
a DVD that's worth adding to your cycle racing collection; after all,
it marks the end of an era and showcases some riders who will most
likely be the stars of 2006 and beyond. Recommended.
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