Helmety Breakaway

One thing I hate about cycling coverage in America, is that they don't treat the three Grand Tours equally with the daily coverage. The Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España both have insanely long television broadcasts like they do for the Tour de France, and the respective countries go crazy over them too, but in America, we're left with a one or two hour recap on the weekend of the preceding week, if that. Sadly, the best Vuelta coverage I saw this year was in an anime from three years ago. Here's a clip from the movie, about a local boy racing through his hometown village, and even though the Vuelta is a big deal for the small villages it passes through, this village is celebrating a more important occasion, the cyclist's brother's marriage. Just not his day. Watch as he leads out a breakaway, and how well the anime captures the mood of the peleton. I could tell from the fake jerseys that this story was set before 2001, because we see the fictionalized name brands of D-Telekom, Mapei, Kelmei, and Festina, all teams which no longer exist. Deutsche Telekom became T-Mobile, and the Festina team was disbanded in 2001 after the huge doping scandal at the 1998 Tour de France. Look for a version of Lampre, Once, Credit Agricole, Ibanesto, and Saeco in the peleton as well. Also, you see that not every rider is wearing a helmet, which wasn't required except for climbing routes, until about 2 years ago. Yoshi! Let's get to the video.