They say that every year, in May, the blood of Italian professional cycling runs pink... because pink is the color of the leader's jersey in the Giro d'Italia, one of the three Grand Tours on the cycling calendar and by far the most important race for Italian fans. The Quest follows one team - Saeco Cannondale - as they try to put one man - Gilberto Simoni - on top of the podium in the 2003 Giro. It's a story of redemption in the eyes of the cycling world, and of teamwork at its finest.

The Quest is a documentary in the tradition of A Sunday in Hell, Stars and Watercarriers, and Hell on Wheels: it's a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to win the Giro, rather than coverage of the race itself (for that, you can watch the actual race coverage of the 2003 Giro). It's a polished and nicely handled film, providing an engaging and revealing in-depth look at the race that will be very interesting for both seasoned racing fans and new viewers.

The film follows the Saeco team throughout the three-week race, using a mix of interviews, behind-the-scenes material, and clips from the race footage. The overall flow of the documentary is very clear; we see how the team is progressing over the course of the race, and at the same time we're learning more about the different individuals involved, and about the challenges that they all face as they try to bring Simoni to the finish in Milan as the leader of the race. There's a lot of attention to detail in the preparation of the material, and the payoff is apparent in the clarity and excellent pacing of the film. Whenever anyone is interviewed, their name is shown on-screen, with identifying tags such as "soigneur" or "team mechanic" added for the support personnel. The different locations are likewise labeled, and the progression of time is generally clearly shown as well. This is a seemingly small but essential touch, especially for viewers who aren't familiar with the pro racing world: Saeco's participation in the Giro involves a large support team as well as a full team of riders, and over the course of the race's three weeks, the race shifts to a new location every day. The fact that The Quest keeps all of this straight in the viewer's mind, while also delving deeper into the behind-the-scenes material, is a major point in its favor.

The Quest's look behind the scenes, at the daily details of life on the Saeco squad, is what really makes the film stand out. We hear from Gilberto Simoni in a number of candid interviews. One of the major topics is his thoughts on the 2002 Giro, in which he was disqualified for a positive drug test (though he was later shown to be innocent of doping), and his desire to vindicate himself in the eyes of his fans in the 2003 Giro. Other interview segments fill out our picture of Simoni as a competitor and as a person. While the film focuses on Simoni, it doesn't neglect the other riders on the team: we get a number of interviews with the other riders who are there to support Simoni's Giro bid, including an up-and-coming Damiano Cunego. The film succeeds admirably at explaining a difficult concept: how a bicycling race, with each rider counted separately, relies so heavily on teamwork.

Racing fans will be naturally delighted to hear from the riders, but the support staff provide a very interesting and valuable perspective as well. The Quest includes interviews with support staff and pays a lot of attention to all the activities that go on behind the scenes to support the riders: maintaining the bikes, transporting the riders from hotel to the start, making sure they all get proper meals (in order to replenish the approximately 8,000 calories each will burn while riding each stage), and providing massage for weary muscles. We also see how the riders have to do more than just race, as the demands of their fans, the press, and their sponsors also have to be met.

The comparison to Hell on Wheels is unavoidable; made in the same year as The Quest, Hell on Wheels also follows a single team (T-Mobile) through one of the Grand Tours (the Tour de France). The two films actually feel quite different, though. Hell on Wheels has an advantage in that it's a more distinctive topic, since T-Mobile was actually having a remarkably unsuccessful period when the film was made; in contrast, The Quest is more traditional in its attention to a team and rider en route to success. On the other hand, it's nice to see The Quest focus on the Giro d'Italia, a race that many people (myself included) consider to be more challenging and more exciting than the Tour de France, even though the Tour gets more publicity. In the end, The Quest comes through as the more polished and overall more engaging film; it does a better job of giving viewers an interesting and well-explained look at what it takes to win a big race like the Giro.

To top it all off, the film is narrated by none other than cycling's most beloved commentator, Phil Liggett, who for many viewers simply "is" the voice of racing. Liggett does a splendid job of providing the voiceover narration for the entire film as well as for the clips from the race.

The DVD

Video

The Quest is presented in a non-anamorphic widescreen transfer, at what seems to be its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The subtitles for the Italian interview segments sometimes get cut off at the far edges of the screen, if there's a really long sentence, but there aren't any other indications of misframing that I could see.

The transfer is watchable, but it definitely has problems. The interviews and behind-the-scenes material all looks fine, but the race footage is very badly handled. There are frequent dropped frames, resulting in a somewhat jumpy effect at times. On top of that, the race footage has a interlacing problems, so that the overall clarity of the image is significantly degraded. I was able to slightly correct for the interlacing problem by turning off the progressive scan on my DVD player and then setting the TV to video mode; without those tweaks, it looked pretty bad. Fortunately, only the race footage is affected, and the overall experience of watching the documentary ends up being OK.

Audio

The stereo soundtrack for The Quest is clean and crisp, with all the participants' voices as well as Phil Liggett's voiceover narration sounding clear and easy to understand. The interviews are all in Italian, and the English subtitles are easy to read.

Extras

There are no special features for this DVD.

Final thoughts

There aren't many documentaries that do a really good job of serving both the dedicated fan and the new viewer, and The Quest is one of them. I'd certainly recommend it to viewers who are interested in cycle racing but don't know too much about it yet; it's informative and very interesting even if you've never seen a bike race before. Devoted cycle racing fans will also really enjoy the documentary, especially the rider interviews and the great insights into what it's like behind the scenes. Even though the image quality isn't what it should be, this DVD still merits a "highly recommended" rating.