RAGBRAI

by Lynn Hicks and David Elbert – The Des Moines Register

Des Moines orthopedic surgeon Dr. Robert Breedlove played a pivotal roll in a film documentary called Bicycle Dreams that’s picked up awards at nine film festivals this year.

The film traces the 2005 Race Across America, in which Breedlove was competing when he was killed by a motorist in Colorado.

Last summer, Los Angeles director Stephen Auerbach dedicated the best documentary award at the Breckenridge (Colo.) Film Festival to Breedlove, saying that the film “unknowingly ended up documenting his last ride.”

 ”I was on the spot where he died 15 minutes later,” Auerbach said.

The film has just been released on DVD, Auerbach said, and it will be available from Netflix and iTunes in coming weeks.

Auerbach said he made the film on a limited budget. “I worked alone for a few years to edit down the 500 hours of footage that we shot into the 104 minutes that now tell the story,” he wrote in an e-mail.

“Each day I sat down to edit, I clearly had Bob in mind, as the story I told had to do his life justice, and more importantly his spirit. Dr. Bob Breedlove was a very special man.”

For more about the film, go to BicycleDreamsMovie.com, where there are links to Amazon and eBay for ordering the DVD.