The Branson Imax is currently showing “Wired to Win” so we took off late this afternoon for a quick jaunt to Branson and to see the flick. Our expectation was that the movie was about the Tour de France and since we’re among the few geeks who actually watch the race every summer and know the names of cyclists other than Lance Armstrong we figured it was right up our alley. Plus I figured it would get me pumped up for the MS150 Bike Ride in a couple of weeks.
Turns out the movie was more about how our brains are wired so during the 45 minute movie we had about 20 minutes of science lesson and 25 minutes of fantastic scenery in France – the alps, the flats along the Mediterranean, the peaceful countryside and finally the Champs-Elyssee for the final sprint and Lance on the podium winning #4 in 2003. The movie followed 2 cyclists from the team Francaise de Jeux – Jimmy ? who had a nasty crash and came back to ride for 4 more days in a neck brace before finally dropping out – and Baden Cooke who won the overall coveted green jersey as best sprinter (and he won it on the last day in Paris by a narrow margin over Robbie McKewen). The premise was to show how their brains hardwired their bodies to endure the grueling 21 days of the race and to react when obstacles got in their way or a crash occurred.
We’ll give it an 8 out of 10 for the scenery and inspiration – and it also raised our already-high enthusiasm for the Tour of Missouri which starts September 11th. Stay tuned for close-up coverage when we volunteer for the Springfield part of the Tour on September 12th.
My personal cycling today consisted of 30 miles on the Rogersville loop ridden at a fast (for me) pace of just over 14.0 MPH. Not bad for an old lady who has a grand total of 308 miles under her butt for the year!
