A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

This is undoubtly one of the most incredible documentaries ever made. Overcoming explores many different themes, most of them which are unique to the Tour de France. This documentary focuses on the 2004 Tour de France and Bjarne Riis' CSC team. The whole team is given a fair amount of air time. This documentary not only shows the raw courage that the men that race in the Tour de France have but also that they are human. And at various stages of the documentary, riders such as Ivan Basso, Carlos Sastre, Bobby Julich and Jens Voigt reveal their human side. Ivan - on his mother's cancer diagnosis, Carlos - from the death of his brother in law, Bobby - from crashing and Jens from being booed as a traitor to his fellow German Jan Ullrich. The soundtrack is superb and the insights into every aspect of the Tour is incredible. In particular, the Alpe D'Huez individual time trial and the poignant scenes of Basso with Riis, his family and on the podium in Paris. The Alpe D'Huez ITT is an incredible piece of filming, as it shows how a Tour can be lost in just 15.5Km of pure purgatory. Basso, who started the Alpe D'Huez time trial only 1:25 behind race leader Lance Armstrong, and finished it more than 3 minutes in arrears. In slow motion, you see what it is like to lose the Tour de France. Riis' says "That's not good enough" to Basso, but clearly his rider tried his best and there were luxuries that were not afforded to riders such as Basso, such as an extra motorbike to clear the path through the hoardes of spectators that packed the 15.5km stretch of the Alpe. However there is also the jubilation of Basso winning the stage to La Mongie, beating Lance Armstrong in the process. The slow motion passage is one of the most incredible and emotional passage ever filmed. The audience sees first hand the raw emotion that Riis' goes through in the team car, as he hears that Basso has won. This movie is one of the most inspirational films ever made and the best cycling film/documentary ever, as it shows how a Tour can be lost in just 15.5Km of pure purgatory.

I really expected to like this film as: a) I'm a procycling fan; b) CSC are my favourite film; c) Bjarne Riis is an interesting character.However I found the film flawed in several ways. Firstly narration was absolutely terrible, almost no context was given for any event in the film. For instance there were scant details given about anything about the race which made details of the team efforts seem like an aside. Another example would be footage of the pre-season team training in Denmark; why were they there and what were they trying to achieve? In order to fully understand the context of the above you would have needed to read procycling publications on regular basis. Fortunately for me this is the case so I could follow the film.In addition to the poor narration, the footage shot wasn't particularly good, and even less well edited given a really disjointed feeling.I had high hopes for this which were unfortunately unfounded. However if you agree with a), b) and c) above it's still worth a watch.

This movie follows the good and the bad of team CSC. You will feel the emotion and passion of the members. Over the next hour and half you will begin to truly understand the physical and mental challenge to race and live for the Tour. Dreams will be shattered and some lucky member's dreams will come true. It's hard being a racer and anything can happen on the bike. When you see them win you will feel it and when you see them fall you will feel the shock. Watch these men try to be the best possibleIt was a little annoying for me because I wanted to listen to it in dutch and I had to read the subs, so sometimes had to rewind and replay it. The video over all is quite interesting although some of the scenes and editing kind of suck, but from someone who has taken some video editing classes its hard because you can not film the scene again if you did not like how it came out. This team is going to be hot for the 06' season. If your a racing fan you know that there the #1 ranked team for the 06 pre-season. If you are not I assure you that team csc will be taking home the gold

Viewers without pre-existing knowledge of the tour may find the opening minutes of Gislason's documentary challenging as it follows the Danish Team CSC's experiences on the 2004 Tour de France. No primer is offered to explain the tour's objectives, its breakdown into day-long stages or the tactics deployed by the riders—this is definitely not OLN, and the film's cohesion suffers a bit because of that.We learn, for example, that owner and head coach Bjarne Riis wants to build a team using untraditional training methods, but Gislason never explicitly tells us how Riis's methods differ from those of the other coaches. Likewise, the first race scenes establish the tour's competitive and emotional importance for the riders, but the nuances behind their activity is left unstated. On one level, this film was definitely crafted for a niche audience.Nevertheless, Overcoming has plenty to offer the uninitiated. During his opening comments at the festival screening in Toronto, Gislason said he hoped the audience would be drawn into the film's emotional story, and it's here that he largely succeeds. Despite the disorienting introduction, he effectively documents the compelling story of CSC's multinational nine-member team, led by rising stars Ivan Basso and Carlos Sastre.We bear witness the challenges, setbacks, and injuries common to every sporting competition but which are magnified by the tour's intensity and grueling pace. The crashes are horrific and the athletes' determination to compete in spite of broken limes and torn flesh formidable, but Gislason's exploration of the group's dynamic proves most compelling in several ways: 1. Communication is a recurring challenge as the riders hail from multiple nations and speak more than half a dozen languages between them. Although they often default to English, it's interesting to observe how many times underlying concerns, and not fluency, interfere with each team member's attempts to make his opinions felt.2. Riis clearly wants to foster teamwork in the truest sense, and not divide his riders between Basso and Sastre. His efforts to manage everyone's expectations, including his own, provide interesting insight to anyone currently holding or seeking a leadership role. Watch for the scene where Ole, the physiotherapist, cautions Riis against closing others out through his body language—it's beautifully handled.3. The backstage perspective affords a unique angle on the strategizing that goes on between coaches and riders, both on the same team and across teams. The exchanges-—some on camera, some merely suggested—-point to the complex emotional and rational decision-making required to win the Tour de France.At the stylistic level, sweeping helicopter passes over the peloton and choppy, hand-held shots taken from the CSC team car create a refreshing immediacy compared to the television coverage usually shown in North America. The base-heavy score provides rousing accompaniment in the first hour (particularly when the riders are moving in their phalanx-like formations), though it descends toward trite melancholy in the closing minutes.Likewise, the epilogue concerning Michelle Bartoli's resignation from the team overextends the film's conclusion and would have been better left as a DVD extra. Parts of the white subtitles frequently disappear against the background and make for difficult reading, especially compared to the more artfully arranged orange text that provides commentary in lieu of a more intrusive voice-over.Overcoming is an entertaining documentary that should enthrall racing fans and entertain more causal viewers. I hope it's picked up for DVD release at the very least, if not wider distribution.