Here's a question for bicycle racing fans: why do you watch races? Is it because you're looking forward to seeing the riders crash? Or is it because you enjoy the excitement of the racing action as the riders try to win? Speaking for myself, it's certainly the latter: while anyone who follows cycle racing knows that crashes are an inevitable occurrence in races, they're something regrettable, not something to enjoy. So it was with a great deal of trepidation that I popped Crash! into my DVD player. Could it be as terrible as I feared?

Unfortunately, yes. Crash! caters to the worst instincts in its viewers, making us rubber-necking spectators to 93 minutes' worth of various crashes and accidents across a variety of races and over several decades' worth of racing. The program is hosted by Bob Roll, but the actual race footage is presented with the actual commentary that was given at the time, usually by Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen. About half of the program is devoted to accidents in the Tour de France, while the second half includes Paris-Roubaix, the Tour of Flanders, the World Championships, and a few other races. There's no particular order to the races within each section, as the clips jump back and forth in time. A few interviews with riders talking about various crashes are also included.

Basically, the theme of Crash! is that it's funny to watch others' misfortune. Now, I'll certainly grant that there are some funny moments included in the coverage here; but for me, I draw the line where anyone gets hurt. That isn't an issue for the compilers of Crash!, though. The program is filled with riders getting hurt, both mildly and very seriously. I suppose we should be grateful that the line was drawn somewhere; otherwise we'd have seen footage of Fabio Casartelli's fatal crash in the Tour de France. But if some vestige of decency rightfully led to the omission of this deadly accident, why is it OK to linger over the horrible crashes of Joseba Beloki and Laurent Jalabert in the Tour de France, both of which sent the rider to the hospital with multiple broken bones and sidelined them for the rest of the season? Other segments are simply crudely intrusive: we get a clip from La Course en Tête with Eddy Merckx's wife getting a phone call about his injury in a race, and as the program closes we are shown Sean Kelly's tears of frustration as he's forced to quit the Tour de France. Yes, cycling has both triumph and tragedy, but to gloat over the tragedy is to drag the sport down into the dirt. It's fine to cover these crashes in the context of the race, where it's relevant... but to pull it out of context and linger on the pain and agony of a rider suffering severe injury is voyeurism at its worst.

To be entirely fair, not all of the Crash! incidents are tasteless. A few of the incidents (notably, ones in which there's no harm done) are quite funny, like when a horse breaks free along the Tour of Flanders route and knocks over Erik Zabel (and then starts chasing the rest of the riders!) or when spectators on horseback have a rather absurd tumble while riding alongside the race. A few other clips have historical interest, simply because they involve riders we can't see on any other program. Sadly, though, that's not the flavor of the program as a whole.

I have to ask, what are we supposed to get out of the Crash! program? It's not the first compilation program that WCP has put out; an earlier one gathered together the "greatest climbs" of cycle racing. But while a "greatest climbs" piece allows viewers to savor the best moments of a race, or to have inspirational viewing while riding on an indoor trainer, the Crash! program is anti-motivational. After watching this, the last thing you'll feel like doing is hopping on your bike and going for a ride. And that's a sad, sad thing.

What's most frustrating, for me as a devoted fan of bicycle racing, is that Crash! includes several clips from earlier editions of races like the Tour de France, editions that have not been released in any form. WCP's vault clearly contains footage that could be used to produce full coverage of races like Joop Zoetemelk's Tour de France win... let's get those races released, rather than just using them for clips in compilations like this!

The DVD

Crash! is a single DVD, packaged in a CD-sized cardboard slipcase.

Video

The images here are all presented in their original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The image quality varies, but overall the footage looks fine.

Audio

The Dolby 2.0 soundtrack is satisfactory; the sound tends to be a little flat when Roll is talking, but the commentary during the race clips is clear and easy to understand.

Extras

There are no special features.

Final thoughts

I love professional bicycle racing: its triumphs and tragedies, its stories of riders giving their all in the hopes of victory. But while crashes are an unfortunate reality in racing, they're hardly something to savor. Crash! caters to the worst in all of us, expecting us to derive entertainment and amusement from real-life incidents of people getting hurt. No thanks. A few no-harm-done "bloopers" offer a glimmer of how this program could have been done more decently, but on balance Crash! falls squarely in the category of "programs that should never have been done." Skip it, and watch a real race DVD instead... that's what cycling is really all about.