Bernie Goldbach off his bike | Screenshot from Line of Sight
I GET THRILLED by watching illegal and dangerous messenger racing. The ultimate DVD, recorded by helmet cams, drops on the first of July.
Lucas Brunelle's Line of Sight premieres at the Bicycle Film Festival. The video offers a rare view into underground bicycle messenger racing which has become a global phenomenon. Brunelle has been riding with the fastest urban cyclists around the world for over a decade. He takes you along for the ride in a gripping first-person perspective through the most hectic city streets, on expressways in Mexico City, over the frozen Charles River, under the Mediterranean Sea, across the Great Wall of China and deep into the jungles of Guatemala. It's an hour of law-breaking public endangement. If you want a more wholesome perspective of skilled cycling, watch downhill circuites on closed courses, cyclecross or any downhill during the Tour de France.
The YouTube trailer is filled with vitriol from concerned pedestrians, motorists and cyclists--summed up best by the retort, "It's not cool to endanger other people lives for your thrills, assholes."
The trailer is thrilling for its sensation of movement and balance. It also gives the anti-cycling crowd plenty of ammunition to keep cyclists in their lanes. Or locked in place.
Watch the trailer from Lucas Brunelle.
Bernie Goldbach curates links on cycling. He needs more mileage.
