The Cycling Addiction Series
Talk No 2 - Beyond The Limits - A Film by Ben Friend and Matt Buels
The 1980's was a decade of epic tour battles. But, the '87 Giro d'Italia is still considered the apotheosis of internecine controversy. Three weeks in Italy when, Carrera team-mates, Stephen Roche from Ireland and Roberto Visentini from Italy, conducted ride-by warfare in the full glare of the world's enthralled media. Nearly four decades later and the whole affair is still subsumed by bitter obfuscation and accusation.
No rapprochement sought or given.
"The betrayal still hurts Visentini and there is very little he held back when he spoke to us"
The Dominos Fell
Writer Director, Ben Friend and Producer, Matt Buels walked into the '87 Giro's long shadow, armed with empty hands and open hearts. Then the dominos fortuitously fall over one by one, and the pair are the recipients of open access to the main protagonists - Stephen Roche, Eddy Schepers (Roche's super-domestique) and for the first time, Roberto Visentini. Their respective truths relentlessly spit and stumble to form a subtly adjusted perspective. It becomes increasingly unlikely, however, that the new freeze-frame will hold, when the last domino falls and Pippa York (Robert Millar) adds her voice. The precise moment when the totality of outsized talent, ego, entitlement and unresolved penitence, is finally appended by cycling's legendary pragmatist.
The hitherto unstoppable meets the famously immovable.
"The hitherto unstoppable finally meets the famously immovable"
Ben Friend - Writer/Director /Matt Buel - Producer
Matt Buels - Producer, left. Ben Friend - Director, right. Both are cyclists but only one is national age-group track-champion.
"Somebody is going home tonight"
Beyond The Limits - 23rd January 2025
An evening with Matt and Ben and a possible mystery guest! Matt and Ben will show a few clips of their film. These are designed to provoke a conversation with the audience - topics could include:
- Somebody is going home tonight - Who? Why? Why didn't they?
- Central casting could not have cast better protagonists, genetically designed to torture each other – discuss?
- Stellar supporting cast – Eddy Schepers, Robert Millar, Patrick Valcke, Davide Boifava
- “Everyone’s Gotta serve somebody, right?” But some aren’t born to serve – Roche, Hinault, Armstrong and Visentini – was this Boifava’s mistake?
- Is there a postscipt – for all of us
- Is bike-racing is it its darkest heart psychopathically transactional?
How To Book
Doors open at 18.30 and the talk starts at 19:00
Rapha London Clubhouse - 85 Brewer St, London, W1F 9ZN
The Cycling Addiction Series at Rapha
A Cyclefit Talk Series - Supported by Rapha and Bloomsbury Publishing
All profits from The Cycling Addiction Talk Series will go to Herne Hill Velodrome and Ambitious About Autism
"Stephen Roche from Ireland and Roberto Visentini from Italy, conducted ride-by warfare"