October 6, 2006 – It takes more than just power and endurance to succeed at a race like the Tour de France. A new IMAX movie debuting this month in Toronto sets out to show how much brainpower comes into play during the grueling July race.

Wired to Win premiered Oct. 3 at the Ontario Science Centre, where it begins its run this month for the general public.

The 45-minute film was shot primarily during the 2003 Tour de France. The filmmakers had wanted to make a movie looking at how the brain functions during intense events like endurance sporting events, and they figured the three-week bike race would provide the perfect backdrop. The result is a cinematic masterpiece with mountainous European scenery that comes to life when shown on the massive domed IMAX screen.

The movie is an interesting mix of cycling footage from the race, and CGI computer animations showing how the brain works in fascinating detail. It’s not so much of a science movie that it would bore those outside the science world, but it’s also not so much of a cycling movie that it would bore people outside that world. The finished product is movie that should entertain a wide range of people, including the many school-aged kids who will see the film at the Ontario Science Centre.

The production team, which includes Toronto’s Daniel Ferguson as co-writer and first assistant director and Jonathan Downar as scientific script consultant (both were at the premier Oct. 3), first approached Lance Armstrong and his team about focusing on him during the 2003 tour. However, with plans already in the works for a biopic by Armstrong and the obvious difficulties that would come with trying to work with the race favourite during the centenary tour, the filmmakers instead went to Team CSC and Tyler Hamilton.

They shot massive amounts of footage of Hamilton during the 2003 tour, when he broke his collarbone early on, yet still finished the race fourth. But then when he was suspended from racing for allegedly being involved in illegal blood transfusions, the IMAX filmers had to go back to the drawing board.

Luckily, during the 2003 tour, they had concurrently followed the FDJeux team with Baden Cooke and his French teammate Jimmy Caspar. The two provided an equally interesting storyline to Hamilton’s with Cooke fighting for the Green Jersey and Caspar trying to stay in the race after being caught up in the same early-race fall as Hamilton.

To film the movie, the producers used four IMAX cameras including one mounted on the back of a motorcycle which could follow the racers. Because the camera was so large, there wasn’t enough room for the motorcycle driver and a camera operator, so the camera was controlled remotely from an operator flying in a helicopter above the race. In the end, only about 10 per cent of the film shot ended up making the final cut of the movie and around 80 per cent of the footage used was live. The rest were set up shots filmed in 2004.

The film cost an estimated $7.5 million to produce, and was funded by National Geographic, Ortho-McNeil Neurologics and the National Science Foundation.

For more information including the trailer and a behind the scenes movie, visit the website at www.wiredtowinthemovie.com