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Sunday In Hell - You Tube

Mar 13, 2009
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I kicked the new year off by watching "A Sunday in Hell" today. I dozed off a couple of times but I still liked it a lot. I don't know if there are many other testimonies of what cycling used to be like in the 1970's of this quality, other than that film. Probably not I would assume.

My favourite parts were:

- Seeing mechanics ride on top of cars, or holding on to the side of a car. I did not know that they used to do that, and it looked crazy dangerous! I wonder when this practice was abandoned?

- The workers' strike at the very beginning. Especially seeing the workers let the riders through one by one, patting them on the back and putting stickers on them. The best image was of an older gentleman greeting Thévenet and cheering him on - that was a really great moment. They also slid the tyres of one of the organizer's cars - damn! Those strikes were the real deal, I can't see that happening today.

- Seeing a young Merckx up close. This was the first time I saw such close video footage of him from when he was young, and it was fascinating to observe him before and after the race. His obsession with every little detail, even going to the Brooklyn team car to ask for tools to adjust his saddle while the peloton was held up by the strike.

- The scenes at the end in the showers. Wow! Those are holy cycling grounds. Seeing all those riders in these rudimentary shower stalls, in this old, run-down building, washing off the dirt, sweat and blood - great footage.

- Close-up image of a crashed rider, with a large gaping cut on his forehead. There you see that this is the real deal, this is really dangerous. In general, all the crashes looked really impressive, with some riders not moving after hitting the ground, others screaming out in pain. This particular rider with the gaping cut didn't even flinch when the doctor treated him!

- The commentary and the music were also very good. Especially the commentary I liked a lot, I found that it was not too much, not overexplaining things, yet still explaining them in a very clear, concise way.

Happy new year, cheers
 
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May 26, 2010
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Christian said:
I kicked the new year off by watching "A Sunday in Hell" today. I dozed off a couple of times but I still liked it a lot. I don't know if there are many other testimonies of what cycling used to be like in the 1970's of this quality, other than that film. Probably not I would assume.

My favourite parts were:

- Seeing mechanics ride on top of cars, or holding on to the side of a car. I did not know that they used to do that, and it looked crazy dangerous! I wonder when this practice was abandoned?

- The workers' strike at the very beginning. Especially seeing the workers let the riders through one by one, patting them on the back and putting stickers on them. The best image was of an older gentleman greeting Thévenet and cheering him on - that was a really great moment. They also slid the tyres of one of the organizer's cars - damn! Those strikes were the real deal, I can't see that happening today.

- Seeing a young Merckx up close. This was the first time I saw such close video footage of him from when he was young, and it was fascinating to observe him before and after the race. His obsession with every little detail, even going to the Brooklyn team car to ask for tools to adjust his saddle while the peloton was held up by the strike.

- The scenes at the end in the showers. Wow! Those are holy cycling grounds. Seeing all those riders in these rudimentary shower stalls, in this old, run-down building, washing off the dirt, sweat and blood - great footage.

- Close-up image of a crashed rider, with a large gaping cut on his forehead. There you see that this is the real deal, this is really dangerous. In general, all the crashes looked really impressive, with some riders not moving after hitting the ground, others screaming out in pain. This particular rider with the gaping cut didn't even flinch when the doctor treated him!

- The commentary and the music were also very good. Especially the commentary I liked a lot, I found that it was not too much, not overexplaining things, yet still explaining them in a very clear, concise way.

Happy new year, cheers

Yep watched it Xmas day. Dont have tv in our house.

Merckx OCD.
 
Can anyone tell me who the Molteni rider stepping in the Broom Wagon is and what the exact name of the first cobble section in the movie is?

According to this article the first cobble section was Neuvilly à Inchy-en-Cambrésis. It was on the route from 1972 to 1984.

I mention it because for many years there was no Google street view available for the uphill section out of Neuvilly. But it was finally added in June 2023.
 
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