Henry Abel
Tuesday, September 22
WEBCYCLERY MOVIE NIGHT @ McMENAMINS
BICYCLE DREAMS
McMenamins Old St. Francis School Movie Theater
Bend, Oregon
9:00 p.m. | $5 per person | 21 & over
For September, WebCyclery brings you the Central Oregon premiere of Bicycle Dreams. This incredible story follows the Race Across America - a grueling, 3000-mile bicycle race from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Top riders finish in under 10 days, riding over 300 miles per day and sleeping only a few hours per night.
This film about the 2005 edition of RAAM offers a fascinating glimpse into the world of ultra-marathon cycling. It's painful -- yet weirdly inspiring -- to watch the riders gradually break down as the miles mount. They hallucinate. They weep. They bicker with their crew. They collapse. But they keep going.
Amid the sleepless grind, riders must endure the searing heat of the Mojave Desert, the agonizing climbs and descents of the Rockies, the driving winds of the Great Plains, and the twisting switchbacks of the Appalachians before the final sprint to the finish line in Atlantic City. With little prize money at stake, the fundamental goal of the race is simply to finish, a challenge half of all riders fail to meet.
Bicycle Dreams captures the emotional and physical meltdowns, late-night strategy sessions, and great moments of personal triumph, all in intimate detail.
Kevin Gorman, a film critic known for his thumbs-up and thumbs-down reviews with his brother and fellow critic, Mean Todd, has praised Bicycle Dreams and heralded it as "The sweetest Race Across America movie ever!" Mean Todd continued the accolades and added, "As long as you're going to be at McMenamins drinking a beer, you might was well be watching Bicycle Dreams at the same time."
While WebCyclery Movie Night at McMenamins is a monthly fund raiser for Central Oregon Trail Alliance (cotamtb.com), it is mostly an excuse to get together with a theater full of like-minded cyclists to watch a great bicycle movie, have a cold beverage, raise some money for local trails, and maybe win a door prize.
Henry@WebCyclery.com