the 7-eleven team that is featured in the movie was a real life team that competed in the tour de france and giro d'italia in the '80s. the team was later sponsored by motorola. much of the race action was filmed at the coors classic, a now-defunct stage race that was one of the world's leading cycling events at the time of the film. two stages in the film's featured race, the morgul-bismarck circuit race in boulder and the "tour of the moon" at colorado national monument, were legendary coors classic stages.