The makers of the Rough Rider documentary based on journalist/former pro Paul Kimmage and the Tour de France have appealed for help in trying to recover from the theft of three Apple Macbooks prior to the start of stage one yesterday.
The trio had their laptops stolen when thieves broke into the camper van they are using on the race. As a result they are currently unable to transfer recorded images off their video cameras, and the project is on hold.
“We were parked up a 15-20 minute walk from the start of the race, on the hors course,” the Rough Rider producer Tony Whelan told VeloNation today. “There were police and officials everywhere. We went off, filmed the race and then did post race interviews and more filming. By the time we had got back to the campervan, everyone else had left.”
With no-one around, the thieves struck. “The campervan had been broken into - three Apple macs were taken, camera gear. They left lots of stuff, but it was the Apple macs that they were after.
“The real difficulty is that for the transfer of data from our filming to the backup drives that we have to ship home, we have to do it through an Apple mac. We can’t film any more – all our cards are full, so without an Apple, we have stopped filming now.”
The project was already running very tight on budget. Appeals broadcast over Corsican radio yesterday failed to result in any leads, despite the offer of a reward, and now Whelan is hoping that someone can step forward to help.
“We are trying to figure out where we are going to get Apples from, to be honest,” he said. “We are looking for them to be donated, loaned to us, whatever. We are hoping we can borrow at least one Mac at the stage finish today to get what we have filmed across and backed up, then we can start filming again. At least that would be that problem solved, although it still leaves all the other stuff we have to do. We still have to get more.”
Whelan is hoping that an individual or company can step forward by Monday evening and provide the film-makers with machines to use. Insurance will eventually cover the cost of the thefts, but he is aware that could take a long time to reclaim the money to replace the machines.
It is essential for the project that they can film at the Tour de France, and so he has his fingers crossed that something can be done.
“The budget is so tight so our cash flow is screwed,” he said, frankly. “So if there is someone out there who can get two Apples to us by Monday in Nice, we would be forever in their debt.”
The project is named after Kimmage’s seminal 1990 book called A Rough Ride, which was one of the earliest works to frankly discuss the doping issue within the peloton. Since then the former pro has become an award-winning journalist, and is writing on the Tour for the Irish Independent.
Anyone who can help is asked to contact the crew via the email address Rory@wildfirefilms.net or on Twitter @roughrider2013.