"The Final Hour"

campagchris

ITV4 are screening "the final hour" on monday night @8pm chronicling Chris Boardmans attempt @the hour record.

yogi

I'm looking forward to it, thanks for the heads-up.

andy_wrx

Is it me, or is there a message in the ITV4 trailer for these series of programs ?

The voice-over says 'what is it about some people which makes them go the extra mile to win' (over image of Lance with a grimly-determined look) 'where others would give up and fail' (over image of Boardman looking absolutely knackered and disorientated)

Perhaps the image of Boardman is when they pull him off his bike after he finishes his successful Hour attempt, having gone so deep to achieve it.

But that's not how it could be read, it seems to be suggesting that Armstrong is a winner and Boardman a loser ?

moorjohn

just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not out to get you

Coriander

Interesting - my viewing of it was completely different. I thought the shots of Chris Boardman were clearly when he's getting into the zone and all the images were of men who are famous for going, or are clearly going, further than most of would go - I for one wouldn't be doing stomach crunches (or whatever they are) in a field of mud like the soldiers that are shown.

drenkrom

I'm a sound engineer and I work to edit and mix stuff like that all day. Don't look too deeply into it, really. Most of the time, stuff like that is not planned. The picture editor put together some stock footage, probably without even having a script. Said editor probably knows nothing about cycling at all and couldn't name the guys he's editing. Then someone writes up a dramatic little piece, an announcer gets in front a mic and reads it, and a guy like me edits it so it flows well, fits into the timing, and, if possible, has the punches on picture changes in the video edit. That sound engineer also probably has no knowledge of cycling. The whole thing is done in less than a few hours. And most people involved don't give much of a toss about the final result, as long as it's done in time to go on air on schedule.

You're really digging too deep, there.

andy_wrx

That's fine, so long as it's just me :?

I'm just not Lance's number 1 fan :twisted:

drenkrom

Oh, I got you there. I would definitely have put in the time to try and edit that differently.

Anna Robic

andy_wrx wrote:

Is it me, or is there a message in the ITV4 trailer for these series of programs ?

The voice-over says 'what is it about some people which makes them go the extra mile to win' (over image of Lance with a grimly-determined look) 'where others would give up and fail' (over image of Boardman looking absolutely knackered and disorientated)

Perhaps the image of Boardman is when they pull him off his bike after he finishes his successful Hour attempt, having gone so deep to achieve it.

But that's not how it could be read, it seems to be suggesting that Armstrong is a winner and Boardman a loser ?

Or maybe that Armstrong was prepared to go to lengths that Boardman wasn't.

weyayeman

Cheers for the heads up.ITV4 seem to be getting into cycling big style,lets hope we email them and say thank you,please may we have more.

Anna Robic

weyayeman wrote:

Cheers for the heads up.ITV4 seem to be getting into cycling big style,lets hope we email them and say thank you,please may we have more.

Don't get too excited. Both this and the Armstrong programme are repeats that were shown on British tv years ago.

peanut

on now
Chris Boardman

simon_e

Anna Robic wrote:

Don't get too excited. Both this and the Armstrong programme are repeats that were shown on British tv years ago.

Well I got excited, or at least fascinated. I never knew of them the first time around and wasn't following the race news back when Chris attempted the hour record.

The Lance Armstrong prog was interesting, though morphed from a bike tech/training feature into what came over as a LA love-in scripted by the PR team towards the end.

peanut

it was very good program I thought. Boardman was without question an amazing athlete but has the personality of a dead fish :roll:

SteveR_100Milers

You can't please everyone, can you

RichN95.

peanut wrote:

it was very good program I thought. Boardman was without question an amazing athlete but has the personality of a dead fish :roll:

Sadly, Tom Hanks can only do 47km for the hour

andy_wrx

What about Terry Dolan's personality then ?
(remembering the Tony Bell episode...)

The CB program was well put together though. It had a story, the film was edited together to tell it and commentary was added to keep the continuity.
Not like the RAAM program last week...

eskimo Joe

im sure near the end he said he had just beaten Mosers record , i didnt tape it so i cant check

eskimo Joe

im sure near the end he said he had just beaten Mosers record , i didnt tape it so i cant check

andy_wrx

He beat Merckx's record

He (and Obree) had already beaten Moser's record (which Moser set with aero wheels and so on, ignoring any chemical 'assistance' from Conconi...) with the 'superman' position bikes which the UCI was complaining about.

Here's the list
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hour_recor ... .28Male.29

andrewgturnbull

Here's one attempt that didn't make the list:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Anquetil wrote:

n 1967, 11 years later, Anquetil again broke the hour record, with 47.493 km, but the record was disallowed because he refused to take the newly-introduced post-race doping test. He objected to what he saw as the indignity of having to urinate in a tent in front of a crowded velodrome and said he would take the test later at his hotel. The international judge ruled against the idea and a scuffle ensued that involved Anquetil's manager, Raphaël Géminiani.

Cheers, Andy

andy_wrx

Yeah, forgot about that, and have recently read 'Sex, Lies and Handlebar Tape' too !

Moomaloid

Andy i'm gonna buy that book. Is it any good?

The Lance programme was utter crap, but have Boardmans on tape and will be watching tonight!

andy_wrx

It's interesting. I enjoyed it and thought it worth reading.

The writing style's a bit heavy and pedantic at times, but I found myself grinning at it rather than being too irritated.
I admit I didn't know that much about Anquetil, knew a bit and that intrigued me and hence I wanted to read the book.
Most of the book is about cycling, not sex and lies, but from a different era and it was interesting to get an idea of Anqetil's motivation, some of the politics of the time, which races he would do and which not, a different attitude to drugs, etc.
The cycling is anecdotes, interviews and so on, not just a dry list of palmares.
Throughout the cycling are references to his...err, life&loves and unusual domestic arrangements, but most of the detail is confined to a couple of chapters at the end, which is probably well judged - if you started with them they'd be some sort of spectacular shock expose, but coming there they fit in context of what you've learned of the man and they don't seem quite so peculiar - the book title and the synopsis the publishers put on the dustjacket is far racier.

I bought it from play.com a couple of months ago, they were cheaper than Amazon or Waterstones at the time.

graeme_s-2

For anyone who enjoyed the Boardman doc, and hasn't already read it, I can heartily recommend The Hour by Michael Hutchinson, which is about his attempt to break Boardman's record. The book also includes a lot of the history of the hour record, and has even been enjoyed by non-cyclists I've loaned it to.