Nasu: Summer in Andalusia

Nasu Summer in Andalusia , Nasu Andarushia no Natsu? is a 2003 Japanese anime film by Madhouse, directed by Kitar Ksaka, the famed animation supervisor of the Oscarwinning anime film Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke and longtime collaborator of Studio Ghibli, and adapted from a short 3tankbon manga by I Kuroda, entitled Nasu, which was serialized in the Afternoon manga magazine.

Nasu Summer in Andalusia follows the story of a professional Spanish cyclist, Pepe Benengeli, as he competes in the Vuelta a Espaa road bicycle race through his home town in the Iberian region of Andalusia. As the story progresses, Pepe is faced with frustrating consequences, with him facing pressure from his sponsors and the wedding of his former girlfriend, Carmen, to his elder brother, Angel, coinciding on the same day of the penultimate stage of the bicycle race. Originally is meant to be a backup racer domestique whose job is to assist his more prominent teammate to win the race. However he accidentally overhears a conversation in his sponsors van through his radio comlink which had been negligently left open, in which he finds out, to his shock, that his sponsor intends to fire him after the race. Realizing that he may not find another team for the next season and that he has nothing left to lose, he disregards his instructions and sets out to win the race for himself.Some of the teams or riders in the race are influenced by name andor uniform by actual cycling teams or riders in the early 2000s. Zamenhoffs team Pamei, for example, is named after prominent cycling team Mapei. Bazels team PPhone, and its sprint train strategy, is comparable to that of the Telekom team of Erik Zabel, who Bazel is named after. Zabel was one of the most prominent sprinters of all time, winning many stages in the Grand Tours. ........

Source: Wikipedia