Really enjoyed the story on this one and very immersive, just like Norway and Team Scream. More like this please Sufferfest!
Also fascinating to see the deprivations top cyclists have to go through to be successful. No wonder Kittel, Doumoulin, Phinney bring a premature close to their careers!
Good to hear. The Inspiration videos are kind of mixed. The Thereabouts ones are great, Chasing Legends is great. Crescendo, Holy Week and Wolfpack are awful- the UCI obviously owns all the cycling video, so there is nothing but ālads in busesā. Which other ones have you liked?
Agreed @afolpe, they are a mixed bag. I find the longer ones pretty dull unless they have a really good storyline and actual biking/racing footage.
Aside from Moon Rider, A dogs Life, Earth Cycle and Rising from the Ashes I found very engaging and, to a lesser extent, Changement de Roux. Not done Chasing Legends yet but the rest struggled to keep me engaged as the workouts were not exactly varied or interesting. If they are only 20 minutes or so its not a big deal but the 1 hour+ become a mental struggle if they are not engaging.
Check out both Thereabouts. Both are interesting movies and the workouts are decent for a base mileage kind of day. You could obviously make them tempo if you wanted something harder. The second one has good scenery too, so for example yesterday i did that one without the sound, just listening to my own tunes and watching the mountains. Iād like 1) more workouts with great scenery and no soundtract, and 2) it would be so awesome if they could somehow license those old world championship and Tour videos from way back, the ones that were 60-90 mins long, and make them into workouts. Those are, after all, what originally got David into making the SFest vids.
The moon reference was to how many kilometres Quaade would have ridden by the end of his goals - 370,000 - the distance to the moon.
I found it inspiring. He had clear goals and, despite failing to win the World Championship in Copenhagen, had already set his target for winning next time. His Mount Sufferlandria, if you will.
I wasnāt quite sure what to think during Moon Rider. I was rooting for him. But the blacking out sections and his narrowmindedness about it almost made me feel like he had a very unhealthy, almost mental illness relationship with his riding. I donāt know if that was intended, or if it was supposed to just highlight his focus. But, it felt a bit extreme and made me feel a bit uncomfortable. Almost as if his extreme focus WAS his problem. I didnāt get to finish it, tho, because my 7 year old woke up and walked in after 40 minutes. Maybe that wouldāve helped? 
Sorry, was a joke.
Non joking: Quaadeās story was a(nother) tragedy about someone gifted immense (600W+ ftp!!!) talents who for whatever reason lacked the āintangiblesā to translate his world-class physical ability into world-class results.
He was young during the film, so gets all the benefit of the doubt youth and inexperience deserve, but after winning the Danish U23 national TT and getting an invite to the national training program, refused to listen to coaching or engage with his teammates, trusting to his raw power to see him to victory. Recall him thinking other riders - including pros way more experienced than him - were āstupidā, and he would have to learn to be āstupidā if he were going to make it in cycling and get a contract.
As depicted in the film, he ended up blowing up in multiple road races, parked in the broom wagon, alienated from his team, and essentially out of the national training program and the sport. Yes, he was able to get his head straightened out to train his way to a silver medal in the subsequent World U23 TT championships in Copenhagen - which was an amazing story and the best part of the film - but that ended up being his peak. At 21.
He spent the past 10 years riding for 2nd or 3rd tier Danish-based squads. The closest heās ever gotten to a major podium since were team bronze medals in the team pursuit in the 2013 UCI World Championships and in the 2016 Olympics. 10 years later heās now 31 years old, heās still hanging on, riding for a second tier Danish squad. His last strong result was winning a small dual TT in France in 2019.
I hope heās happy in life, whatever heās doing now, and proud of all he was able to achieve in the sport. And I think his mom and coaches were awesome. But I found his whole story immensely sad.
I found Chasing Legends very interesting. It wasnāt so much the parts about Cav and his quest, but the behind the scenes look at racing, for instance Phil Liggett talking about the time and effort of the mechanics. It was also great to see and hear Paul Sherwen again. I really miss that guy, a lot. Iāll feel the same way when Vin Scully is gone.
For those who enjoyed Thereabouts, thereās a third one released a few days ago, available on Youtube. Set in Colombia. Itās pretty amazing.
To be fair, āonlyā achieving Bronze in team events at the UCI Worlds and Olympics is one helluva an achievement!
It was great to see just what it would take to be successful in the pro world. I found the whole documentary really thought provoking and wondered if I ever could have been bound by the constraints of being a successful rider. The strict diet, endless boredom, etc. Well that and I would never have been good enough for a Division 10 team in a complete lack of talent!
Thatās a great summary and explains a lot of why the documentary left me feeling like his story was not going to be a success story. Iām glad he was able to hang on and have some success. But, itās sad to see someone with so much talent who ends up not being able to take that last step.
So many of us wish we had those physical talents alone. But it goes to show that being a world class athlete does take more than a physical ability.
Anyway, thank you for the extended explanation! That definitely helps in understanding the aim of the documentary. 
@washsaint I figured someone would go there. ABSOLUTELY heās impressive. Weāre only discussing a matter of degrees amongst the 1% here.
What I do sometimes if I know I am going to be bored with the video content is to play the workout from the iPad without the video and watch a DJ set or other more entertaining content on the laptop with the headphones.
It works nicely for the long(er) Z1-Z2 Base/Recovery rides.
@washsaint I just finished reading āFasterā by Michael Hutchinson and it covers a lot of the same ground. It is a fairly quick read and I would recommend it.
I just did Moon Rider today for the first time and found it an interesting, but slightly sad story. I got the distinct impression he was over-training! Iām not sure how much of that was self-induced or from being pushed by his coaches, but it didnāt look like being a recipe for long term success and clearly wasnāt.
It would be really interesting to hear what SUF coaches think about this kind of intense, zero fun, hardcore training regime? I realise it involves full time commitment and superhuman genetics to perform at this level, but I would have thought the basic principles of rest and recovery still apply to these guys. Poor guy looked completely wasted most of the time and he was clearly starting to have mental issues with the relentless training regime. Is that how they all train, or do some of them have a more balanced approach?
Peter Sagan: āA great coach once told me that doing one session less than you had scheduled is preferable to doing one too many.ā
I watched half the road as part of the step up challenge. Very engaging, kind of emotional, left me feeling angry at the injustice of it all and fired up to do something about the state of the world.
Thatās how I want to feel after every SUF session.
Bit late to the party, but just watched Moon Rider today.
Iām no shrink, but I got a distinct impression of a mental health issue here. Any mental health professionals in the room that can chip in? To me, the line between ādrivenā or āfocusedā was crossed and he was in āobsessedā territory.
I hope he sorted himself and managed to enjoy the next ten years of his cycling career.
