Wired to Win: Surviving the Tour de France

Wired to Win: Surviving the Tour de France takes you on a spellbinding ride, seamlessly melding state-of-the-art computer animation of the human brain with the first-ever large-format film footage of the legendary Tour de France. This unprecedented large-format film experience brings together the excitement of world-class sport and the frontiers of science, inspiring and entertaining audiences around the world.

Wired to Win tells the true story of two riders in the legendary bike race – Australian Baden Cooke, and his French teammate Jimmy Casper – as they attempt to compete in the grueling three-week-long event. Narrated by British thespian Alfred Molina, the film follows Baden, Jimmy and the other elite athletes over the towering peaks of the Alps, through the knotted villages of Provence, and the cobblestone streets of Paris, as they try to avoid danger, deny crushing pain and fatigue, control their emotions, seize fleeting moments of opportunity and stay highly motivated. Powering each of them, of course, is the source of universal ambition and ability: the human brain, presented here as a dynamic engine of possibility.

“What we now know about the brain, how it works and the intimate connections between brain function and every single thing we do is unbelievable,” says Dennis J. Selkoe, M.D., one of the film’s science advisors and the Vincent and Stella Coates Professor of Neurologic Diseases at Harvard Medical School and the founder of the Partners Program of Excellence in Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases. “Wired to Win very cleverly illustrates how a healthy brain works, and how cyclists in the Tour de France use the mind – not those equally impressive leg muscles – to integrate a huge amount of information to execute a plan to beat the competition.”

“Wired to Win is designed to engage the public in understanding brain science, inspire the next generation of researchers, and illustrate the advances of neuroscience research and its practical applications,” says Valentine Kass, program director, Informal Science Education, National Science Foundation. “By combining the excitement of large format film, the thrill of the Tour de France, and the wonder of the human brain, Wired to Win creates a stimulating educational experience and achieves all of these important goals, which are critical to this country’s competitive advantage in the sciences.”

To learn more about the film, visit http://www.wiredtowinthemovie.com. Educational material and teacher's guide are available.

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