Just about every cyclist is familiar with the outline of the Graeme Obree story – an outsider invents a new aero position, builds his own bike, breaks the hour record, wins World Championships. Seeing the film, however, really brings home the enormity of his achievements. There’s practically no equivalent of Obree in sport, a virtual amateur who beats the establishment with mind and body. Not only did he take down the best on equal terms, his innovations were co-opted by his rivals.

Obree conceived of his position without the help of a wind tunnel, tucking his arms into his chest so they virtually disappeared. He built his bike using spare parts, bmx tubing, and, famously, a washing machine bearing. By comparison, Boardman was racing on a carbon fiber superbike designed by a team of engineers on computers. The film explains some of his creative thinking, but it glosses over the rest. For example, the fictional Obree hacksaws a washing machine because the bearing is smooth, while in reality Obree needed a bearing narrower than a conventional BB. In fact, his Q factor was so low (for ergonomics and aerodynamics) he needed to elevate his chainstays above the cranks. Perhaps the filmmakers were worried that too much bike tech would cause the audience’s eyes to glaze over, but in doing so they’ve shortchanged Obree’s intellect. We see Obree the tinkerer, but we don’t see Obree the engineer.

Bike tinkering aside, Obree was also a great athlete. He trained himself for the hour without HR monitors, not to mention power meters. His first hour record was actually his second attempt in less than 24 hours, even though conventional wisdom dictated weeks of recovery between attempts. In typical Obree fashion, he keeps his legs loose overnight by stretching them every couple of hours. Instead of setting an alarm to remind himself to stretch, he drinks so much water that his bladder becomes his wake up call.

Diehard cyclists will be happy to know that the film gets the racing scenes mostly right (or, to put it another way, it isn’t cringe-worthy). Jonny Lee Miller (Sick Boy in Trainspotting) shares riding duties with Obree himself and looks convincing enough as a cyclist. The POV shots of the track, complete with tunnel vision and blurred focus, should be familiar to all racers. There’s a reason why those shots are good – Obree himself rode with a camera mounted on a bike, and the actual audio is used. Let’s face it, any film that makes time trialing engrossing must be doing something right.

Of course, no film of Obree can ignore his depression. Though the film seems to tackle his mental illness head on by opening with his suicide attempt, there’s simply too much other ground to cover to fully address the issue. We get a sense of his inner ghosts, we hear the voices in his head, but ultimately his cure gets swept up in the feel good arc of the story. His demons seem too trivial and his cure too facile – it’s as if he gets well because there has to be a happy ending. The most liberties were taken here as well, with his suicide attempt coming between his pursuit world championships instead of years later, and in a lush forest instead of a barn. Also, the death of his brother, said to be a major cause of his depression, is jettisoned in favor of more cinematic demons.

Speaking of feel good stories, it’s easy to label The Flying Scotsman as another ‘underdog overcomes the odds’ sports movie, a Rudy on wheels, or Hoosiers in lycra. But that would be wrong. For one thing, Obree doesn’t win a minor prize or take a moral victory (Rudy makes one stinkin’ tackle??). He sets records and wins world championships. And the details of his story are so fantastic they are truly stranger than fiction – no screenwriter would dare pitch such an outlandish tale (Fishmonger pitches no hitter in World Series using his signature ‘Sturgeon Curve’! Greenskeeper wins Augusta with homemade clubs fashioned from gardening tools!). My objections notwithstanding, cycling addicts and casual fans alike will find it an exciting and riveting portrait of an irascible and stubborn iconoclast, easily a ‘must have’ DVD in every racer’s collection.

The DVD can be ordered here.
Mighty mighty Schmalz Obree interview <a href=”http://www.velocitynation.com/article.aspx?ID=1739&CID=58″>here</a>.