Twenty-two biking hours and about an hour of sleep per day is a grueling schedule, which takes its toll on the riders as well as the support crews, with only minimal sleep and rest from coast to coast. This documentary follows several key riders and their support crews as they push themselves to the limit on their journey that tests not only their physical endurance but their emotional stamina as well. The mind takes a rollercoaster ride when it is challenged this way. And the physical torture these bikers put their bodies through in this ultimate challenge.
The bikers do this not for the minimal prize money, but for their own satisfaction to say they have completed RAAM. And not many people can say that.
Death on the Road
The documentary focuses on several participants, and along the way one of them is killed, a tragedy that takes a toll on the others. Health issues confront most of the riders as their bodies face challenges that test not only their physical toughness, but also their psychological limits. But when death takes one of the riders, and the others are shaken even more by this turn of events.
To say this is fascinating is putting it mildly. To say the participants are crazy is probably something on which most audiences will agree. However it is an interesting event and the film brings it to the attention of people who have never heard of RAAM. True bicyclists know about this intense race, but very few are willing to attempt the grueling coast to coast experience.
Fiction vs. Reality
The 1985 film American Flyers was a fictional portrayal of a three-day race across the Rocky Mountains. Breaking Away in 1979 was also a fictionalized story of a young man’s desire to race. But Bicycle Dreams is not fiction. The cameras get right into the race and the audiences gets the real effect of how grueling the days are for the cyclists, and how they struggle both mentally and physically, oftentimes wondering why they are there and contemplating whether to continue or stop the abuse they are putting themselves through.
Filmmaker Stephen Auerbach takes audiences along on a dangerous race that few bicyclists attempt and even fewer complete. The nine-day 3,000 mile race across America is awesome, bizarre, extreme and amazing, all at the same time. This film is garnering high acclaim from audiences in film festivals around the country andt won Best Documentary Feature in the Fallbrook Film Festival.
