Comment 108925

By Selway (registered) | Posted February 09, 2015 at 22:12:14

As a side-bar, there is a terrific Quebec cycling film titled La Petite Reine, which came out last year. It is based (loosely, I hope) on the career of Genevieve Jeanson. Back in 2003 when Hamilton hosted the world road racing championship, Jeanson was set to participate but flunked a doping test two weeks before the race and had to bow out.

In the film (available subtitled from HPL) Julie Arseneau (Laurence Lebouef) and her coach (Patrice Robitaille) play an agonizing game of cat and mouse with the cycling authorities during the run up to the final race of the season. This movie grabs you in the opening scene and just never lets go. The relationship between Julie and her coach is astoundingly abusive and the pressure on the racer to go on doping and lying about it becomes more and more intense. What is most interesting though is the response of everyone around her, who know but don't want to know what is going on. Near the end she tries to get support from her parents in a scene that is heartbreaking and infuriating in equal parts. This is a sports film where you desperately want the heroine to lose the Big Race so she can get off the hellish merry go-round. She does win through in the end but it's a very wild ride.

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