Review: Eyes Wide Open; the making of Cyclepassion 2011

Some time between Christmas and the New Year I was trawling through Twitter and Markus from Cyclefilm, who I follow, threw out the request for reviews of Eyes Wide Open…I was on that like a fly on honey, a week or so later the DVD arrived. Cyclefilm provide some of the footage for the Sufferfest Training Videos that I have talked about in the past, and who produce some wicked cool cycling videos of their own including the Recon of the L'Etape 2010 - The Road to Tourmalet and Liz Hatch; Come ride with me!, Recon So what’s the premise well Cyclepassion well it’s best described as what happens when eight elite women pro-cyclists trade in their lycra for latex, lace & leather to pose for the 2011 Cyclepassion Calendar. I think the appeal of this movie is best summed up by the founder of the Cyclepassion, Anke Wilken ;

“…cycling involves gear and technology, to us women it’s a mystery how men can admire bit’s and pieces of their bikes for hours”

Now that being said there is more to it than watching some very talented women pose with bikes, each photoshoot provides somewhat of an insight into these athletes psyche, their background in the sport and their training. Interesting there are some really candid moments where they talk about insecurities and fears in their chosen sports. Drawn from across the raft of cycling, including Cyclocross, MTB and Road you get a glimpse of what goes on behind what is perceived to be the glamor of being a professional bike rider. Glamor and glitz it aint!

In no particular order the riders are:

Willow Koerber (USA) - Trek/Subaru - MTB
Heather Irmiger (USA) - Trek/Subaru - MTB
Liz Hatch (USA) - Lotto Ladies Team - Road
Veronica Andreasson (Sweden) - Lotto Ladies Team - Road
Julie Krasniak - (France) Look - Road
Fabienne Heinzmann - (Switzerland) BMC - MTB
Mona Eiberweiser (Germany) - CentralPro - MTB
Hanka Kupfernagel (Germany) Road/Cross

Here are a couple of sneak peeks from the Cyclepassion Website

The Making of Cyclepassion from markus ★ cyclefilm.com on Vimeo.

The Making of Cyclepassion II from markus★ cyclefilm.com on Vimeo.

The wall calendar has long since sold out…go figure right but there are some desk ones left and of course you can pick up the Eyes Wide Open which is now on sale! Trust me the miles slip by on the trainer watching this!

This DVD was provided free of charge by the good folks at CycleFilm. See previous gear reviews in the sidebar on the right. If you have a product you’d like reviewed, contact me at quadrathon@gmail.com.