Ride with George DVD

I'm maybe not the best person to write a review, but I know what I like.

I like the film A Ride with George Hincapie. In short, it's the best cycling film that Kirsten and I have seen.

George is a rider I've enjoyed watching since I started following cycling regularly a couple of years ago, but I'm no card-carrying member of his fan club.  (Has he got a fan club?)

George comes across as a genuinely nice and interesting guy, driven by a dynamic set of sometimes-competing motivations.   It's great to see him chatting there, as if to you, as you ride alongside him on his bike or he sits on the couch with his little girl crawling all over him.

The film is done with lots of respect for George, and he is impressive as the humble hero.  Rather than gushing over his accomplishments, however, he is revealed bit by bit through his own words and stories from those who know him best.

The documentary comes across as honest -- honest in a very naked, exposed sort of way.  There's about as much time spent with family, friends, and colleagues of George as there is with George himself.  At times George is presented with video quotes of his friends saying things that are challenging for him to hear, and he responds to them.  The interviewer doesn't dance delicately with these tough situations, but doesn't present them in a malicious spirit, either.  It's all done to reveal more about George and how he ticks.

There are a few moments where we felt like "ow, how could he ask that?!?" and we sort of winced.  Again, this was not like watching a nasty reporter trying to get a rise out of the interviewee, but rather someone who was trying to get to the heart of things for the sake of revealing the truth -- without the fear of burning a few little bridges along the way.

I laughed.  I cried -- well, at least, welled up in the throat a couple of times.  I liked this better than Road to Roubaix, Cobbles Baby, Overcoming, Hell on Wheels, Triplets of Belleville, Summer in Andalucia, you name it.  Good stuff.

And how do I join George's fan club, anyway?