Meet John Van Wisse, the guy who crushed the Enduroman Arch to Arc Triathlon, a 483-kilometer monster that eats Ironmen for breakfast.
Spoiler alert: It involves a portable toilet, peanut butter sandwiches, and one seriously confused cop.
This is the sports doc you didn’t know you needed.
I rank this #2 on my list of Best Triathlon Documentaries (up to 7 of them!).
Trailer for “Crossing The Line London: John van Wisse”
Watch “Crossing The Line London: John van Wisse”
You can watch “Crossing The Line London: John van Wisse” by clicking the video embed above or clicking one of these links:
- YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5MHsZGOouU
- Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/113491266
Ratings:
- My Rating: 95 /100
- IMDB Rating: na
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: na
Release Date: August 2014
My Review of “Crossing The Line London: John van Wisse”
I love this raw doc.
John Van Wisse embarks on the daunting London to Paris Ultra Triathlon, a 483-kilometer journey known as the Enduroman Arch to Arc.
For the unitiated, the Enduroman Arch to Arc Triathlon has been dubbed the “Hardest Triathlon on the Planet.”
Although, maybe Project Iceman might disagree. 🙂
It kicks off with an 87-mile run (140 km) through the rolling hills from London’s Marble Arch to Dover on the Kent coast.
From there, participants plunge into the English Channel for a cross-Channel swim, covering a minimum of 21 miles (33.8 km) to reach the French coast.
Finally, the race wraps up with a grueling 180-mile (289.7 km) bike ride from Calais to the iconic Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
The clock starts ticking at Marble Arch, London, and only stops when you reach the Arc de Triomphe, Paris.
So far, just 52 athletes worldwide have managed to conquer this beast of a challenge.
Van Wisse, already a decorated athlete with feats like being the youngest to swim across Port Phillip Bay and a triple champion of the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim (my brother-in-law Rich Wilde did that one too!), faces his most significant challenge yet.
Fun parts of this doc include the knitty-gritty of supplies (e.g. salt tablets, peanut butter sandwiches, a portable toilet tent, etc.)
The doc covers frustrating turns like when his team loses track of him early on.
There’s even a comical moment when local police mistake him for an illegal immigrant during his swim across the English Channel.
With inspiration from a message about his father, Van Wisse completes the triathlon in a record-breaking 61 hours and 27 minutes, shattering the previous record by over 12 hours.
Two others have beaten the record since then (see Wikipedia’s Enduroman page for the latest best results). But, hey, they don’t have a documentary (yet) about them!
Thanks for reading!
Rob Kelly, Chief Maniac, Daily Doc