I should have said Serotta, but assumed everyone would know. Yes, he does mention brakes in the other vintage videos as well. David Phinney descended on one of those bikes. I'm pretty sure he did it faster than anyone one riding one now. I figure if the brakes were ok for him, they are more than enough for me.
The video inspired me to take this out for a short jaunt tonight. I never even used the 39/21 (of course, I rode just over 1/10th their distance with none of their climbing...)