Fantastic night of absolute bike geekdom in Boulder. The premier at Boulder Theater was killer in terms of turn out and what apparently was an overwhelmingly huge succes sfor the junior cyclocross programs such as the Mud Skippers. It was essentially a packed house with lots of beer flowing, prizes drawn from Boulder Cycle Sport (thanks B!), Clif Bar and Noodles and Co (Thanks Tuba!).

The movie was decent. I have not seen Transitions ("Part 1") but this installation was pretty interesting. It certainly was not as powerful (read: artistically compelling) as Pure Sweet Hell which combines sincerely "core" imagery with "core" music totally suited to the "core" messages of what 'cross means (at least to me!) without the commercial aspect of Euro racing. Transitions 2 on the other hand was interesting for its raw documentary aspect of the scene behind the major races in Belgium. The film showed quite a bit of "day in the life of" the kids who stay at "The House" in Izegem Belgium which was a yawn. It was interesting to see it, how they eat, etc but could have eliminated a lot of that I thought.

The commentary from Geoff Proctor and Brandon Dwight was probably the most compelling. Geoff, because he lays it out: If you as a wannbe American cross racer want to be the best, get the F out of America, suck it up, and race with the best. This counter balances most of the whining you hear in the film about how hard it is being over there. Dude's, you are YOUNG. Suck it up. You made a choice to be a bike racer. Bike racing did not corner and kidnap you into this life style. You chose it (and invariably your parents are helping you incredibly). For me, I travel 150K a year on United for business while being a husband, daddy and trying to race my bike. Suck it up and eat your peas. You need to be in Europe if you want to (at least) think you'll be the best you can be at the game. Geoff nails this in my opnion.

Brandon's commentary was interesting for two reasons: 1) cause I know him and 2) (really my point here) because he fairly well articulates the reality of how fast and hard it is in a way that is simply beyond your prototypical racer dude saying "Man, uh, those guys are really fast and I feel like shit...". This was truly a homage to those "livin' the dream" as it were racing their bikes as amateurs to live vicariously for a moment through his very real experience.

So overall, great job. Not a film for those who are non cyclists (where Pure Sweet Hell could hook in just about anyone) but a direct commentary to people like us who truly understand the scene and live it to the extent we can here in the states on our weekend crusades of getting muddy, cold and of course ringing cowbells (incidentally, and American phenomenon, not something you hear in Eaurope it appears!).

Pre movie RM beer fest pics: