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A Fred’s Eye View: Chris Eatough, movie star

Published: Apr. 19, 2007
A Fred’s Eye View: Chris Eatough, movie star
A Fred’s Eye View: Chris Eatough, movie star

Chris Eatough appeared less of a world champion mountain bike racer than a movie star as he entered Monterey’s Golden State Theater for the debut of "24-Solo" the new feature documentary based on his 2006 season. Dressed to the nines and accompanied by his wife, Alison, Eatough received a red carpet treatment worthy of Hollywood’s best.

It was Friday, April 13, the second night of the 2007 Sea Otter Classic, and exactly two years since 24-Solo’s filmmakers Ken Bell and Jason Berry debuted their first film, “Off Road to Athens” at the same theater. I stood in line to shake Eatough’s hand, and when I finally reached him he looked a tad overwhelmed. He quickly turned to a stack of movie posters and began signing autographs with the same speed and efficiency that make him the best in the world at what he does.

It was this meticulous side of Eatough — his obsession with proper preparation and his raging Type-A personality — that had me skeptical about the film as I took my seat. Don’t get me wrong; racing a mountain bike for 24 continuous hours is a true He-man feat, one I have attempted once and will never try again. That Eatough has been the world’s best for six years running stands, in my mind, as one of the most amazing and underappreciated feats in cycling. But that doesn’t necessarily guarantee a film worth watching.

To most of the cycling world, 24-hour racing is just some weird sub-culture, a sort of mountain-bike cousin to RAAM. That alone meant that the directors of “24-Solo” faced something of a hurdle out of the gate. For one thing they had to the audience understand just how – and why - people race mountain bikes for 24-hours. The film also had to tell the story of Eatough, give the audience a reason to care about him and do so without delving too deeply into the tedious nuts and bolts of a 24-hour race. Personally, I cringed at the thought of watching Eatough explain proper on-bike nutrition or headlamp setup — things he has talked to me about — into the camera for two hours.

The worries dissolved as the theater darkened. Eatough’s voice blared over the speakers as a shot of him racing through a meadow flashed up on the screen.

Eatough signing posters for fans
Eatough signing posters for fans

“There’s something that happens when you’re out there racing for 24 hours,” he says. “It’s hard to describe. But you come face to face with your very soul. There’s no hiding in a 24-hour mountain-bike race.”

The line set the tone of the film. The message is clear: racing one’s bike for 24-hours at Eatough’s level doesn’t cause simple physical suffering, but emotional suffering, too.

A flurry of interviews with mountain-bike icons John Stamstead, Travis Brown, Alison Dunlap and Ned Overend backs this up. The latter three admit to never wanting to undertake a 24-hour solo race. To them, tackling such a challenge is a comically bad idea.

As in “Off Road to Athens,” 24-Solo addresses the history and culture of 24-hour racing without the convenience of a narrator. Stamstead’s history lesson on the sport is long enough to put Eatough’s career into context.

The film tackles its toughest challenge — explaining Eatough — in a similar manner. The audience first meets Eatough on one of his many training rides, and he systematically describes his training plan, his history in the sport and even the proper pronunciation of his name (Eatough, as in eat off a plate) in an efficient few lines. Quirky, on-screen notation fills in the rest of the blanks.

But the first glimpse of Eatough the audience sees of the confident and calculating man written about in cycling magazines. It’s the Eatough everybody knows, but the film hits its stride when Eatough’s talk of proper training methods dissolves, and Eatough lets out a laugh and smile. Sitting sitting on his porch, we see him describing a dream he had about his then-pregnant wife transforming into a teeter-tottering inflated balloon. The scene offers a rare shot of emotion from the usually robotic athlete.

The film also hits a high in bringing Eatough’s team manager, the wisecracking, fun-loving Jonathan Posner, into focus. Posner’s happy-go-lucky attitude brings balance to Eatough’s serious demeanor. He also provides a view into the trials and tribulations of the pit crew, the critical, but usually overlooked, elements of 24-hour racing success.

The film’s ultimate triumph, however, comes from breathtaking race shots, the original score and cinematography, not to mention the access the filmmakers had at each racecourse.

Bell and Berry open the film with shots of the ferocious thunderstorms that pummeled Eatough and others at the 2006 national 24-hour championships. The filmmakers follow Eatough to China, where they catch him effortlessly gliding past water buffalo, confused farmers and indescribably stunning landscape. They then capture Eatough from a bird’s eye view out of a helicopter as he takes on his methodically planned training rides near his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland.

The film’s crux comes at the 2006 world 24-hour championships in Conyers, Georgia. To film the event, Bell and Berry invested in ziplines, huge strobe lights, a helmet-mounted cameras, night vision goggles and scores of other toys. The investment paid off — the sequence is arguably the best-shot, most realistic portrayal of a mountain-bike race ever caught on film.

Up close and personal: Camera crews often trailed Eatough on course.
Up close and personal: Camera crews often trailed Eatough on course.

The film is not without a few misses. It glosses over Eatough’s life outside of cycling. He tells the audience that each year it becomes more important for him to win the world championship, but he doesn’t really ever say why. He says he has put cycling ahead of his engineering degree, but he could make more money as an engineer. How much he makes as a cyclist is never discussed.

But the film should be considered a success — the final scenes from the world championship race are worth the price of admission alone. A teary eyed champion, Eatough has been crushed by newcomer Australian Craig Gordon. While he beat Eatough, the effort took its toll, as the Aussie is quickly transported to the hospital with near-toxic levels of blood poisoning. The audience comes about as close to the experience of 24-hour racing as one can expect to be, sitting in a darkened theater.

24-Solo Tour DatesApril 20th, 7:30 pm San Francisco, CA Randall MuseumApril 26th, 7 pm Arlington, VA Arlington Cinema & DraftApril 27th, 9:30 pm Arlington, VA Arlington Cinema & DraftApril 28th, 7 & 9 pm Harrisonburg, VA Court Square Theatre

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