A Sunday In Hell

A Sunday in Hell (original title: En Forårsdag i Helvede) is a 1976 Danish documentary film directed by Jørgen Leth. The film is a chronology of the 1976 Paris--Roubaix bicycle race from the perspective of participants, organizers and spectators.
Paris--Roubaix is the most famous and usually the most dramatic of the spring classics. Much of the latter portion is over narrow, cobbled tracks that choke with dust on dry days and become slick and muddy in rain. For the riders it's a challenge to keep going without puncturing or crashing.
The film captures not just the events of the 1976 edition but the atmosphere of a professional race. It begins by introducing the contenders: Eddy Merckx, Roger De Vlaeminck (the previous year's winner), Freddy Maertens, and Francesco Moser, each with their supporting riders (the domestiques), who are charged with helping their team leader win. The film gives views of the team director, protester (the race is halted for a while), spectator, mechanic and rider. As the cobbled section is entered the selection begins. Riders puncture, crash, make the wrong move - the race plays out. By the finish in the velodrome in Roubaix only a few are in with a chance. The winner is a surprise, but that is part of the appeal. Post-race the exhausted riders, mired in dirt, give interviews in the velodrome's showers. They look like men who have been to hell and back.
(Wikipedia)
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Category:

Music

Tags:

• Sunday
• In
• Hell
• cycling
• vintage

[vaniasat]

two people had a bad experience on cobbles

[becomearobot]

@vaniasat only two?

[Darrenov]

Two people were Eddys mechanics...

[Sbaruffolis]

Great movie,when Cycling was a religion...

[tucnasam]

Love it. into the sweep van and no recovery!

[tucnasam]

I want an old racing bike! I'm gunna find one and make that my winter training bike!

[jessebarrettmusic]

amazing director! looks at pro cycling in a more refreshing, poetic way than can be found in more modern cycle film.

[redesau]

Paris Roubaix earnt the name "Hell of the North" when the race was run in 1919. The route was through the shattered landscape that was left after four years of brutal trench warfare. The trees were skeletons, most of the hedgerows were gone and there were no birds to singoing. One rider said "It wasn't a race, it was a pilgrimmage"

[whitting54]

Quite possibly the greatest cycling film ever made. I love the cinematography, direction narration, soundtrack . . . and of course the legendary racers and their classic, lightweight steel (no carbon fiber) racing bicycles.

[Esudao]

@BareKasper and a helmet

[beatmassillon]

@acul7919 I agree! Why go to the effort of finding this classic film - for free - on Youtube only to dislike it. Those that dislike are a bunch of tossers!

[BareKasper]

1:05:00 Holy shit, someone needs a doctor !

[gizmoshere]

Brilliant, one of the all time greats... Cycling rocks..