Contre La Montre

I remember seeing this movie when I was fourteen, at the UC Theater in Berkeley. Bike racing had infected me some three years earlier- I barely knew what bike racing was, as the Europeans did it, as the pros did it. I'd only ever seen the Berkeley Criterium to that point, which was held near my house, down on Fourth street, in what is now a posh business filled row. Back in the day, it was factories, workshops, and Spenger's Fish house. They raced on bad roads, over train tracks, around and around in a rectangle. When I saw that clip, on a double bill with 'Stars and Water Carriers', I was transfixed. I hadn't seen this clip since then. It still stirs me, captures me. I understand it a bit more, the whole bike racing thing, and it is now only more compelling.