Filmmaker endured his own trials for documentary

Hailed by critics as one of the most powerful sports documentaries of all time, "Bicycle Dreams" profiles the Race Across America, a 3,000-mile transcontinental race that draws some of the best ultra-endurance cyclists from around the world.

Top competitors finish the race in eight or nine days by riding more than 300 miles a day and sleeping just a few hours each night. To capture the physical and emotional toll of the race, filmmaker Stephen Auerbach and his team utilized 18 cameras and worked around the clock.

"Bicycle Dreams" tells a riveting story, but it's not the story that Auerbach expected to tell.

On the fifth day of the 2005 Race Across America, the event took a tragic turn when Bob Breedlove, a 53-year-old surgeon and ultra-cycling veteran, was struck and killed by a pickup truck as he descended a 9,941-foot pass in Colorado.

"Everyone loved this man," said Auerbach, who lives in southern California. "It was a traumatic experience for me and everyone in the race. The film no longer was about cycling, but about the human condition. It became a film about life."

Auerbach's film crew gained unprecedented access to the cyclists and their teams by traveling inside the crews' support vehicles. The result is a rare, behind-the-scenes look at a subculture of athletes who compete in one the toughest endurance races in the world.

Stretching from coast to coast, RAAM subjects the cyclists to varied terrain and all types of weather. The cyclists ride 22 hours a day, and as many as 50 percent of the solo racers drop out.

Auerbach said filming the race instilled in him profound respect for all of the competitors.

"These people belong to the smallest club on earth," he said. "More people have climbed Mount Everest than show up at the starting line for this thing."

Auerbach returned home from the race with 550 hours of footage. After one year of editing, he still wasn't satisfied, and after his funding ran out, he worked odd jobs so he could finish his documentary.

"I have a personality like the cyclists in the race - I don't give up," Auerbach said. "This was the toughest race in the world, and I had possibly the toughest edit in the world. I felt that finishing the film was my destiny. I couldn't walk away."

Auerbach said he feared that Breedlove's death would make "Bicycle Dreams" too depressing to most movie-goers. But then, something unexpected happened: The documentary started playing to sold-out audiences and finishing first place at major film festivals like the Yosemite Film Festival and the Breckenridge Film Festival.

The Oct. 19 screening at Maryville College will be the film's premiere in Tennessee and the 45th screening overall.

"I was very lucky to be able to tell a story that actually changes people's lives," Auerbach said. "Now, I've got to overcome the sophmore slump and find a way to do it again."

Morgan Simmons may be reached at 865-342-6321.

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