Wonderful Losers: A Different World review
An intimate and emotional look at riders like Svein Tuft whose stories impact professional cycling but often go about their jobs in the background
The stars of cycling are the riders who cross the line first. Who fight for the big wins in the one-day classics and grand tours. The riders whose post-win interviews reveal their personalities as they talk up their ambitions for the general classification or adding another Monument to their palmares. Forgotten in all this are the riders whose job day-in and day-out are to protect their leaders.
Seldom do the gregarios and domestiques get the glory or opportunities to race for their own chances. They make big sacrifices and suffer often without receiving any of the accolades of their celebrated peers. Wonderful Losers puts the focus on these forgotten riders. Through the film we learn about their experiences.
Canadian veteran Svein Tuft is a prominent personality throughout the film. It opens with Tuft doing strength training, barefoot on the slopes of a ski hill near his home in Andorra. A rock climb later, he is icing his legs in a fresh stream off in the woods. Wonderful Losers is Tuft’s story, it’s the story of the overlooked riders who put their bodies on the line for their leaders but it doesn’t follow any structure.
The film is an intimate look at the sacrifices of everyday professional cyclists skipping the stories of the established and celebrated stars of the sport.
Viewers are taken inside the team cars, hospital rooms, hotels, ambulances, medical cars, through the grupetto and onto the tarmac where fallen riders pick themselves up after a pile-up. These are the powerful micro stories of the film and they are backed up by thoughtful commentary by the riders who slowly reveal their ideas and motivations. The filming was largely done at the 2014 and 2015 Giro d’Italia.
This is not a linear story about bike racing. Instead, it is a collection of snapshots that show what is so often overlooked and missed. A mix between a documentary and art film put together carefully by director and writer Arunas Matelis, and his team. It’s about suffering and sacrifice. If watching the Ronde van Vlaanderen or a mid-week stage of the Giro gives you goosebumps, you’ll be delighted by the perspective the film brings to bike racing. If you aren’t a fan of bike racing, you’ll understand the intricacies of the sport beyond crossing the line first a little better after Wonderful Losers.
The soundtrack is minimalist. Beautiful in its simplicity. The setting in which the riders speak about their experiences are intimate. Tuft tells us his story from the great outdoors. By the end of Wonderful Losers you won’t think any of these riders as unaccomplished. What makes them keep doing it. The film can feel a little slow at times but intentionally so. It adds to the film’s impact because of its slow pace.
The film runs for 71 minutes. Wonderful Losers can be rented for $9.24 on Vimeo.
