A Sunday in Hell (1977)

"The sunday is April 11th, 1976, when the classic and gruelling annual Paris-Roubaix bicycle race was held, and the Hell is the cobblestone field roads of northern France, where the champions of bicycle racing battle for victory. With an army of photographers, Jorgen Leth followed the race in all of its detail, and he has edited this 24 hours of footage into a mythic and documentary spectacular.
Jorgen Leth has made cycling films before, but A Sunday in Hell is his piece de resistance, over a hundred minutes of finely-calculated suspense that leaves the viewer limp from vicarious pain and excitement. It is a compassionate film, realistic, yet free of the excesses of poetic realism'". (Peter Cowie, 1978 International Film Guide)