Search - Blood Sweat + Gears: Racing Clean to the Tour de France on DVD

Pumping Up for the Tour de France

Amos Lassen | Little Rock, Arkansas | 10/05/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Blood Sweat + Gears"

Pumping Up for the Tour de France

Amos Lassen

The ProTour cycling club is the star of this inspirational film about preparing for the Tour de France. The club has two goals--winning and cleaning up the sport of cycling. This is a close look at cycling and what it means to be a competitor.
Following a year in the life of racing team Slipstream, director Nick Davis takes us to Boulder, Colorado where the team trains for the event. The members of the team express concern that the recent scandals about the use of drugs could possibly ruin the sport of cycling and they are determined to bring back the good name. We see what it takes to be a winner which includes the ability to suffer and the willingness to push to the extreme.
We meet Magnus Backstedt, a giant of a Swede who is a bit older and who plans to retire at the end of the coming year. There is Mike Friedman who returns to the sport after a serious injury and who wants to make the Olympic team. There is Danny pate whose marriage is falling apart because is so often away from home. Christian Vandeveld managed to get a fourth place win in the Tour de France and finally there is the manager, Jonathan Vaughters, who is very passionate about what he does and the sport. The members of the team have all agreed to participate without the use of any performance-enhancing drugs and to atone for what happened to former team member, David Miller, who makes a comeback after having been sidelined for a doping offense.
The movie is gorgeous to watch and the story is wonderful as we take a look into the lives of people who are dedicated to their sport and are willing to make sacrifices
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One Team's Quest to Make it to the Coveted Tour de France

L. A. Vitale | 08/11/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I originally watched this documentary on the Sundance Channel. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it immensely and learned a lot about the sport of professional cycling. I am not a cycling fan. Nor do you need to be one to enjoy watching this documentary.

"Blood, Sweat + Gears" follows a relatively new pro-cycling team founded in 2007 named "Slipstream Chipotle". "Slipstream Chipotle" is looking to make it big in the world of professional cycling. The goal of this particular pro-cycling team is to have pro-cycling team where all of the cyclists are free of using sports enhancing drugs (doping has apparently become quite pervasive/common place in the pro-cycling circuit), gain major sponsorship, and be invited to participate in the Tour de France.

In this documentary, we see this team meet all of its goals. The team has a strong anti-doping program to help ensure clean cyclists. "Slipstream Chipotle" does receive major sponsorship from Garmin and the team becomes known as "Garmin Slipstream". "Garmin Slipstream" does receive the invitation to participate in the Tour de France where we are able to see their pro-cyclists participate in the 2008 Tour de France.

"Blood, Sweat + Gears" showcases some of "Garmin Slipstream's" major pro-cyclists: Christian Vande Velde, Michael Friedman, David Millar, and Magnus Backstedt and more.


The "Garmin Slipstream" team is lead by Jonathan Vaughters, a former professional cyclist, who is is currently the CEO of Slipstream Sports and the director of of the professional touring team.

The flow of "Blood, Sweat + Gears" is great. It was wonderful to see what it is like to train as a pro-cyclist, the pressure of the sport in general and and so on.



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