Stuff Fatty Loves: Bicycle Dreams

If you do something enough — and by “enough,” I mean “too much” — that something will get into your head. It will burrow in and start occupying a space way out of proportion to its actual importance.

Marvin Zauderer, in his sport performance coaching practice, works with amateur and professional athletes from all sports on the mental skills needed for peak performance. He leads the Mental Skills Training program at Whole Athlete, a performance center in Marin County, California that provides a comprehensive set of coaching, testing, fitting, and consulting services to athletes. He is a licensed psychotherapist, USA Cycling Level 2 coach, and Masters road racer for Taleo Racing. 

Marvin recently watched Bicycle Dreams, an astonishing new documentary by Stephen Auerbach about RAAM: The Race Across America. Here's an excerpt of what he had to say.

"As perhaps the pinnacle of endurance sport competition worldwide, RAAM begins on the west coast of the U.S. and ends on the east coast each June, touching 14 states and climbing 100,000 feet. Although there are also 2-, 4-, and 8-person teams, the race is legendary for its solo categories. The winning soloists finish in as few as 8 days and sleep as little as 12 hours. Total. And no drafting, no hotels, no rest days. It’s 30% longer than the Tour de France. Oh, and one other thing: the clock never stops. It’s a 3000-mile time trial. Now that’s a race of truth.

A central theme of the film is the profoundly inspiring strength of the individual human spirit in facing monumental challenge and tragedy. The film is a ride of many stark contrasts; when it ended, I felt both shattered and triumphant. I realized I was experiencing its genius: I had been given as close of an approximation to what a RAAM finisher feels as a movie-watcher can get.

But it was another theme that stuck with me long after the film ended: the crucial relationships between RAAM athletes and people who are literally and figuratively along for the ride. These relationships made – or broke – the experience of every rider.

So much of Bicycle Dreams evokes a deep sense of interdependence: the fragile magnificence of the American landscape; competitors propelling each other to discover new heights of the human spirit; cyclists and support teams on the paradoxical edge of complete disintegration and transcendent unity. So, too, is there interdependence between athlete and coach, on the road to discover what both are made of".

Bicycle Sport Shop presents BICYCLE DREAMS, a new documentary about the most challenging sports event in the history of mankind. In the Race Across America, cyclists are tasked with riding from San Diego to Atlantic City in under twelve days; top riders usually finish in under ten. The racers must endure the searing heat of the Mojave Desert, the agonizing climbs and descents of …the Rockies, the driving winds of the Great Plains, and the twisting switchbacks of the Appalachians before the final sprint of the 3,000+ mile race to New Jersey.

Top riders sleep little more than one hour a night, if they sleep at all. Most fail to finish. Some die. All hallucinate and experience life-changing moments of emotional, psychological, and physical self-discovery.

BICYCLE DREAMS records the 2005 Race Across America, one of the most dramatic and compelling races in the endurance challenge’s long history. Recorded along with a number of the cyclists, the film presents many perspectives on this unique race, the toughest in the world.

Attending the screening will be TOM ROGERS, a competitor in the RAAM and one of the cyclists the film follows. He’ll be here to share his experience of this race.

Great Giveaway Prizes will be provided by Bicycle Sport Shop, Specialized, and Austin Cycle Camp, so be sure not to miss your chance to see this great film.

Meet at Bicycle Sport Shop at 6:30 before the show and ride your bike over to receive an extra ticket in the prize drawing.

Get your tickets for BICYCLE DREAMS, playing Tuesday July 27 at 7:30 @South Lamar.

"Bicycle Dreams is a beautiful film that probes deeply into the sport’s heart of darkness, offering an inspiring glimpse at the high price of glory." 

USA Today

Winner of Yosemite, Grand Rapids, All Sports Los Angeles, Solstice, Breckenridge, Fallbrook, and Red Rock Film Festivals.

The Race Across America is the most challenging endurance sport ever devised by man. Cyclists are tasked with riding from San Diego to Atlantic City in under twelve days; top riders usually finish in under ten. The racers must endure the searing heat of the Mojave Desert, the agonizing climbs and descents of the Rockies, the driving winds of the Great Plains, and the twisting switchbacks of the Appalachians before the final sprint of the 3,000 mile race to New Jersey.

Top riders sleep little more than one hour a night, if they sleep at all. Most fail to finish. Some die. All hallucinate and experience life-changing moments of emotional, psychological, and physical self-discovery.

BICYCLE DREAMS records the 2005 Race Across America, one of the most dramatic and compelling races in the endurance challenge's long history. Recorded along with a number of the cyclists, the film presents many perspectives on this unique race, the toughest in the world.

Endurance Cyclist and Film Personality Tom Rogers live in attendance for post-show discussion!

Meet at Bicycle Sport Shop and ride your bike over to receive an extra ticket in the prize drawing. Giveaway Prizes from Bicycle Sport Shop, Specialized, and Austin Cycle Camp.

Bicycle Sport Shop brings Bicycle Dreams, a documentary inspired by the epic 3,005 mile bike race RAAM, to Alamo Drafthouse. This is not a stage race, you are not riding with teammates, you do not get a rest day and you must finish in less than 10 days. The Race Across America promises ten hard, sleepless days as participants race through 14 states and over 100,000 feet of climbing. RAAM which held its first race in 1982 is considered one of the most challenging sporting events in the world. The racers begin their journey on the Pacific coast then ride, an average of 300 miles per day, across the Mojave Desert, over the agonizing climbs of the Rockies, through the driving winds of the Great Plains, and over and down the twisting switchbacks of the Appalachians before they reach their final destination, Atlantic City.

“Bicycle Dreams is a beautiful film that probes deeply into the sport’s heart of darkness, offering an inspiring glimpse at the high price of glory.” USA Today

About the Production

Filmmaker Stephen Auerbach and his crew worked around the clock to capture the highs and lows of the Race Across America. With 18 cameras in the field, the team found innovative ways to document this massive event. To uncover the inner workings of the race, embedded camera operators traveled inside the riders’ crew vehicles, gaining unprecedented access to the cyclists and their teams. Their footage captured emotional and physical breakdowns, late-night strategy sessions, and great moments of personal triumph, all in intimate detail. Auerbach then took on the enormous task of editing hundreds of hours of material into a powerful, inspiring look inside the most difficult race on Earth.

Get Tickets Now!

Joins us Tuesday, July 27th at the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar at 7pm to see the film that won 15 Film Festival Awards. Meet at Bicycle Sport Shop and ride your bike over to receive an extra ticket in the prize drawing. Prizes from Bicycle Sport Shop, Specialized, and Austin Cycle Camp.

BICYCLE DREAMS
Rated NR; 104min; Director:Stephen Auerbach
Location: Alamo South Lamar

"Bicycle Dreams is a beautiful film that probes deeply into the sport’s heart of darkness, offering an inspiring glimpse at the high price of glory."

-USA Today

Winner of Yosemite, Grand Rapids, All Sports Los Angeles, Solstice, Breckenridge, Fallbrook, and Red Rock Film Festivals.

The Race Across America is the most challenging endurance sport ever devised by man. Cyclists are tasked with riding from San Diego to Atlantic City in under twelve days; top riders usually finish in under ten. The racers must endure the searing heat of the Mojave Desert, the agonizing climbs and descents of the Rockies, the driving winds of the Great Plains, and the twisting switchbacks of the Appalachians before the final sprint of the 3,000+ mile race to New Jersey.

Top riders sleep little more than one hour a night, if they sleep at all. Most fail to finish. Some die. All hallucinate and experience life-changing moments of emotional, psychological, and physical self-discovery.

BICYCLE DREAMS records the 2005 Race Across America, one of the most dramatic and compelling races in the endurance challenge's long history. Recorded along with a number of the cyclists, the film presents many perspectives on this unique race, the toughest in the world.

Kid Policy: 18 and up; Children 6 and up will be allowed only with a parent or guardian. No children under the age of 6 will be allowed.

Screenings (click on a show time to buy tickets):
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
7:00p

When I first heard about Team I-24's bicycle sprint across Iowa this weekend — essentially RAGBRAI in a single day rather than seven — I admit I was a bit exasperated.

I assumed it was another symptom of how we tend to fast-forward everything these days — our lives as content on demand to be skimmed rather than savored. You mean we can't even enjoy a pie-laden, weeklong bicycle tour anymore without abridging it into a breakneck race?

But then I met some of the I-24 bicyclists and their crew and decided that they've got the right idea. I'm just envious of their prowess to be able to pedal across Iowa, from the northwest corner of the state to the Mississippi River access in Harpers Ferry, in a mere 24 hours. (Hence the "I-24" name.)

(Update: Check out Kyle's blog to find out when I-24 arrived at the Mississippi River in the early hours of June 20.)

So they're not following this year's winding RAGBRAI route from Sioux City to Dubuque. Yet it's a northern route, a straight shot along Iowa Highway 9 (or county roads that run parallel to it).

The 11 riders range in age from 26 to 62. Ten men and one woman. All Iowans save for one rider from Chicago and a breast cancer survivor from Denver.

It will mark the most ambitious two-wheel trek for each of them.

Many of the riders gathered Thursday night at Sean Arndt and Carla Pope's West Des Moines house to prepare. The couple — empty nesters with four boys all graduated and gone — moved to this town home last summer in large part because it was close to bike trails.

Arndt, 43, is a rider and one of the primary I-24 instigators, while Pope is among the support staff of eight that will roll along with the bikes in four vehicles.

"That's looking clean, Bob," Dave Foster, Arndt's chief co-conspirator, told Bob Irving as the latter rolled his gleaming bike into the trailer carrying the team's gear.

"Has anybody found a pedal wrench?" Tim Lane, the elder statesman at 62, asked the group.

The I-24 path: Start at 4 a.m. Saturday on Iowa 9, near the Iowa-South Dakota border northwest of Larchwood. Roll into Harpers Ferry about 22 hours later.

Total distance: 304 or so miles.

There's a strict 10-minute break every 38 miles. Think of a NASCAR pit stop: The support crew sets up the coolers of food and drink in advance of each break. Riders grab individual baggies filled with nutrition bars, peanut butter bagels, ibuprofen, whatever keeps them going. Water and Gatorade are refilled. There's first aid for blisters.

Bike mechanics along the route were put on call.

Insurance documents were gathered, and a doctor friend from Florida is among the support staff.

The team drove the route to inspect it. Arndt biked half the route three weeks ago.

I-24's preparation has been extensive and detailed, including five major warm-ups around central Iowa: two 100-mile joyrides, two 150-mile forays and one 200-mile monster on May 8 in which the first 83 miles blasted the team with vicious headwinds.

The I-24 scheme was hatched at the start of the year at a bar, El Bait Shop in downtown Des Moines. That made sense, since a pitcher or two of beer would be necessary to get me to sign up.

But that didn't answer the obvious question, "Why?"

"I posed that to you the other day," Foster said, pointing to Arndt, who already has logged 6,000 bike miles this year.

Lane had a quick response: "Because I failed miserably twice."

Lane has ridden 34 of the 37 RAGBRAIs. But he had to abandon his own 24-hour trans-Iowa attempts - seven years ago because of extreme heat and mechanical failure, and again three years ago in the middle of a tornado warning.

This week he woke up at 3 a.m. daily to condition himself for Saturday's early start.

The specific inspiration for I-24 was a viewing of the documentary "Bicycle Dreams" about Bob Breedlove, a Des Moines physician killed in 2005 during the Race Across America.

"Let's do something huge," was Arndt's reaction, and the meetings at El Bait Shop began in earnest.

Another inspiration was Mike Trevino, an elite marathon runner and mountaineer as well as bicyclist who grew up in Fort Dodge and now lives in San Diego. In 2005 he zoomed across Iowa via 273 miles of Iowa Highway 92 in just 10 hours and 37 minutes.

"He's a Superman," Arndt said. "We're a bunch of middle-aged folks."

Trevino also came in second in 2004's Race Across America — a 3,000-mile odyssey of sleep deprivation.

The mental challenge is the bigger hurdle for marathon bicyclists assuming they have trained, Trevino said. After a while you "saturate all the receptors for pain," but the mind can keep playing tricks.

"You literally start hallucinating," Trevino said. Examples: Mailboxes along the roadside become people. Bushes and shrubs appear to be animals.

Ernie Fisher, a retired science teacher who runs Precision Cyclery in West Des Moines, said he set a record for trans-Iowa bicycle rides about 25 years ago when he crossed from Westfield to Dubuque, 329 miles, in just 16 hours. He's been giving I-24 some pointers.

"Iowa has the history of RAGBRAI, riding from one river to the other," Fisher said. "Just like any sport, you want to say, 'I've been there and done that.' "

By the time you read this, I-24 very well may have been there and done that. Shortly before noon Saturday, the bicyclists were 114 miles into their ride and enjoying a quick break at the Danish Days festival in downtown Ringsted. (Sounds a lot like RAGBRAI, come to think of it.) They started the morning 40 minutes late but by this point had pedaled their way a half-hour ahead of schedule.

"The wind is very strong and at our backs," said Carrie Crawford of the support staff. "It just couldn't be any better."

By about 4 p.m. Saturday the team had reached Manly, east of Interstate Highway 35.

"We are ahead of schedule still, but the heat of the day is starting to test the riders a little bit," Crawford reported.

By the end of today some of the riders may have done even more after their Iowa crossing.

"I already asked Dave if he wanted to bike Sunday afternoon," Arndt said.

Count me out. My Father's Day weekend might include treks between my living room and kitchen. But not from the Missouri to the Mississippi.

Eleven bicyclists are recovering after peddling across the state of Iowa, nearly nonstop, in a 21 hour span. Dave Foster of Norwalk and Sean Arndt of West Des Moines hatched the idea several months ago, though Foster can’t remember exactly why.

“I don’t think there is a single reason,” Foster said about the motivation behind the venture. “I think there are 11 riders and there are 11 reasons to do it.”

Arndt says the group was inspired by the documentary “Bicycle Dreams” about Bob Breedlove, a Des Moines physician who was killed during the Race Across America in 2005. The decision to ride across Iowa in 24 hours, which led to the team name “I-24,” was launched over a few beers at a Des Moines bar. Although the initial idea may have developed on somewhat of a whim, Foster says the team left no stone unturned when it came to planning the trip.

“We knew where every hospital was along the way, we knew where every bike shop was…we actually had an E.R. doctor friend come in and ride support for us,” Foster said.

The support team included eight people and four vehicles. The “I-24″ team left western Iowa, near Larchwood, at 4:30 Saturday morning and arrived in Harpers Ferry in eastern Iowa at 1:30 a.m. Sunday. The bicyclists stuck together the entire trip and stopped for 10 minute breaks every 38 miles. Arndt says the 304 mile trek was basically problem-free.

“The drivers on the Iowa roads were awesome to us,” Arndt said. “We had nothing but positive comments and everything worked out wonderfully.”

There was a 40-mile stretch where the cyclists barely saw a vehicle. Arndt says they traveled a county road between Osage and Decorah where they only encountered two or three cars. “It was pretty much like that road was made for us,” Arndt said.

The 11 bicyclists, 10 men and one woman, range between 26 and 62 years of age. Nine of the 11 are from Iowa. The other two live in Chicago and Denver. Arndt and Foster say they’d like to bike across Iowa in 24 hours again – but next time, they’ll map a different route and possibly invite more bicyclists.