A Sunday in Hell

The documentary is about a single bicycle race. The race runs from Paris to Roubaix. The date is the eleventh of April 1976. The film starts in the early morning. It films the preparations and the rituals outside Paris. Then the race begins. Much of the route goes over the cobbled farm roads of northern France. Dry weather brings dust and rain brings mud. That is why the day is called hell. The camera watches from fixed points, from motorcycles and from a helicopter. The riders it follows most closely are Eddy Merckx, Roger De Vlaeminck, Freddy Maertens and Francesco Moser. It stays with the organisers and the crowds as well, and the outcome is settled on the track at Roubaix. The hundred and eleven minute documentary is a Danish production Jørgen Leth finished in 1977.