As "Enter the Slipstream" (2023 release; 88 min.) opens, it is "August 26, 2020, Nice, France" and the 2020 Tour de France is about to start, after being delayed for almost 2 moths due to the COVID pandemic raging around the world. This is not without risk, and the question is whether the Tour can even make it all the way to Paris three weeks later. We then go back to "Six Months Earlier", before the pandemic even started, to the beginning of the pro cycling season at the Tour of Colombia. The American racing team Education First is there as its top man is Rigoberto Uran and several others are in fact Colombian. Uran is returning from a massive injury he sustained in the fall of 2022... At this point we are 10 minutes into the documentary.
Couple of comments: this documentary follows 1 racing team, with seemingly unfettered access, and it is quite interesting to see the cycling season through that particular lens. The bulk of the documentary does focus on the Tour de France, the grandaddy and most important of all pro cycling events. The impact of COVID is palpable throughout the documentary, which only adds to the drama. What a strange year 2020 turned out to be.
This documentary was released in the early summer of 2023 but I only became aware of it now, as Peacock (where it is now streaming) was pushing it on its sports section. I am not sure what held back the release (3 years after the facts). Better late than never! Interestingly, last summer also saw the release of the documentary mini-series "Tour de France: Unchained", and that is one of the best sports documentaries I have ever seen, period. In the meantime, if you are a fan of pro cycling in general, or of the Tour de France in particular, I'd readily suggest you check out "Enter the Slipstream", and draw your own conclusion.
Couple of comments: this documentary follows 1 racing team, with seemingly unfettered access, and it is quite interesting to see the cycling season through that particular lens. The bulk of the documentary does focus on the Tour de France, the grandaddy and most important of all pro cycling events. The impact of COVID is palpable throughout the documentary, which only adds to the drama. What a strange year 2020 turned out to be.
This documentary was released in the early summer of 2023 but I only became aware of it now, as Peacock (where it is now streaming) was pushing it on its sports section. I am not sure what held back the release (3 years after the facts). Better late than never! Interestingly, last summer also saw the release of the documentary mini-series "Tour de France: Unchained", and that is one of the best sports documentaries I have ever seen, period. In the meantime, if you are a fan of pro cycling in general, or of the Tour de France in particular, I'd readily suggest you check out "Enter the Slipstream", and draw your own conclusion.