For those up on their cycling movie knowledge, the roadie genre has become a popular place for those following the sport to get their fix, whether they’re for the pure thrill of the ride or the camaraderie of those in the peloton. Here’s a listing of some of our favorite skater-free cycling films, in chronological order.
If you like biking, then you probably like movies about biking. But if you like movies about biking, then you probably like movies about roadies a lot more. Roadies are the guys and gals who make the roads safe in the middle of the night. They are also the ones who become the heroes of some of the best cycling movies of all time.
There is a lot of movie filming going on around the world right now, with many different types of films being shot. One of the most popular type of movie is the cycling movie, which are able to capture the beauty of the sport of cycling.. Read more about cycling movies on youtube and let us know what you think.
If you’re anything like us, you can usually find us watching bike movies when we’re not riding, repairing, or otherwise thinking about bikes.
There are lots of cycling movies to keep you amused, including documentaries and Hollywood blockbusters.
Here are some of our favorite feature-length roadie films.
Breaking Free
Breaking Away is a classic cycling movie.
After winning a Masi bike, David (the characters in the film only have first names) is uncertain what he wants to do with his life after graduating from high school and gets obsessed with bike racing and Italian culture, which irritates his father Ray, a used car dealer.
So, when an Italian professional racing team comes to town, you can bet David will be there. One of the Italian riders, enraged by David’s power and zeal, pulls a shady maneuver, leaving him physically and emotionally beaten and shattered.
David and his motley gang of pals are asked to compete in the Indiana University Little 500 race after a fight over a lady and some mistaken identification.
Slaying the Badger in 30 Minutes
Slaying The Badger is a documentary that is part of ESPN’s 30 for 30 series on American cyclist Greg LeMond and his rivalry with Bernard Hinault.
The film, which is based on Richard Moore’s book of the same name, looks back at the 1986 Tour de France, the first year it was broadcast live, and how Hinault pledged to assist LeMond win his first Tour victory in exchange for his support the year before.
However, things didn’t go as planned, and an epic fight followed – and keep in mind, they’re both on the same side.
Pee-Big wee’s Adventure is a film directed by Pee-wee Herman
This isn’t actually about roadies, however. Cycling movies in general are very depressing; they’re all about pain, suffering, a little victory, and a lot of tragedy, which is why Tim Burton’s cult classic Pee-Big wee’s Adventure makes our list.
When Pee-wee Herman, a young-at-heart man-child, has his cherished bicycle stolen after his arch enemy Francis Buxton arranges for it to be snatched and destroyed, he embarks on his first major adventure.
Pee-wee goes on an epic cross-country journey in pursuit of his cherished bicycle after a clairvoyant informs him his bike is at the Alamo.
The Flying Scotsman is a fictional character
The hour record is Graeme Obree’s love/hate relationship in the British drama The Flying Scotsman.
The video depicts Obree’s battle with depression as well as the effect he had on track cycling, not just as a rider but also on equipment regulations, during the time when he set, lost, and then reclaimed the world record.
Thereabouts
Lachlan and Angus (Gus) Moreton set a huge goal for themselves a few years ago: ride from their boyhood home in Port Macquarie to Uluru (Ayers Rock). Lachlan was riding with Garmin-Sharp at the time, and Gus had just started riding for a month after a lengthy break.
They rode almost 2,500 kilometers in 12 days to one of Australia’s most isolated locations, and the trip is as much about the people they encountered as it is about the bike.
Hell on Wheels is a film about a group of people who
Hell On Wheels is a documentary that follows Erik Zabel and Team Telekom as they celebrate the Tour de France’s 100th anniversary in 2003. It is not to be confused with the AMC TV program about the building of the transcontinental railroad.
The film follows the team through the main highs and lows that the riders face throughout the race, as well as what occurs while they aren’t riding.
This is a serious film with subtitles, so don’t anticipate a lighthearted, easygoing experience. However, it is well worth your time to see.
The Route to Roubaix
The pinnacle of the cycling season for this writer is Paris Roubaix. The mayhem, the mud, the panache, and the luck required to just survive the race makes for thrilling entertainment.
Every year, Road To Roubaix is a thrilling documentary that recounts the tales of the riders, spectators, and technicians that participate in the one-day epic.
The 2007 race is mixed with behind-the-scenes video and a combination of archive and rare historic material in this film told in their own words.
A Hellish Sunday
Because we like Roubaix, it should come as no surprise that another film about the event has made our top ten list.
While Road to Roubaix covers the contemporary race, A Sunday in Hell takes us back to the 1976 edition, which featured the likes of Eddy Merckx, Roger De Vlaeminck, Freddy Maertens and Francesco Moser.
The video depicts the race through the perspective of team directors, fans, mechanics, and even a group of protestors who were able to temporarily halt the race.
The American Flyers are a team based in the United
In this Kevin Costner classic, sports physician Marcus Sommers (Costner) persuades his younger brother David Grant to train with him for “The Hell of the West,” a three-day cycling race through the Rocky Mountains that is now known as the Superior Morgul Classic.
Marcus keeps quiet about his brain aneurysm, which may paralyze or kill him at any time, and persuades David to accompany him on a cross-country journey to Colorado for the marathon. Marcus’s secret eventually comes to light, presenting David with a moral quandary.
The Armstrong Deception
Alex Gibney had no clue what he was getting himself into when he started out to film The Road Back, a documentary about Lance Armstrong’s return after four years of retirement.
Following Armstrong’s doping probe and lifetime suspension in 2012, Gibney revised and resurrected the project, beginning it with the American’s interview on Oprah.
The Armstrong Lie portrays Armstrong’s ascent and fall from favor in a remarkably fair depiction of one of cycling’s greatest scandals.
Lance
Do we really need another Lance Armstrong biopic? Maybe not, but this one is certainly worth your time.
Lance is a warts-and-all two-part film that recounts the tale of cycling’s most notorious racer, and it’s all new for 2024. It’s based on a series of thorough interviews.
From Ashes to Ashes
Rwanda was the site of a horrific genocide in 1994, which claimed the lives of between 500,000 and 1,000,000 innocent people and left millions of children orphaned. In 2006, Jacques Boyer, a former pro cyclist, relocates to Rwanda to assist a group of genocide survivors in forming a national cycling team.
The team is made up of orphaned youngsters who have been traumatized by the genocide a decade before, and throughout the course of the narrative, both Boyer and the team “rise from the ashes” of their pasts thanks to their new accomplishments.
Rendez-Vous de Belleville (The Triplets of Belleville)
Madame Souza instills a passion of cycling in her grandson, Champion, from an early age, and as a young man, he becomes a road racer with his grandmother as his coach.
During a mountain stage of the Tour de France, Champion and two of his rivals are abducted by a gang seeking to use the threesome’s special abilities. Madame Souza goes off to locate Champion, accompanied by Champion’s overweight and faithful dog Bruno.
Their quest leads them to Belleville, where Madame Souza and Bruno encounter three old ladies who assist Madame Souza locate her grandson. The Triplets of Belleville were a renowned singing trio in the 1960s.
This animated French film is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before, but it’ll make you grin.
The Pharmacy Tour
Even though it’s a bad film, I still liked it. Tour De Pharmacy parodies cycling’s doping problems and recounts the tale of the 1982 Tour de France – not the actual one, of course – from the mind behind The Lonely Island and Hot Rod.
The 1982 edition of the race is depicted in the film as being so riddled with doping that all but five riders were disqualified. Marty Hass (Adam Samberg), Juju Peppi (Orlando Bloom), Slim Robinson (Daveed Diggs), Gustav Ditters (John Cena), and Adrian Baton (Freddie Highmore) are the last five racers.
J.J. Abrams, Dolph Lundgren, Joe Buck, Maya Rudolf, Jeff Goldblum, and even Lance Armstrong, of all people, make cameo appearances.
If you can take the shock factor, Tour de Pharmacy is definitely worth your time. It’s crammed with of wiener jokes, oddball characters, and a little of full-frontal male nudity, so don’t anticipate high-brow humor.
Icarus
What happens when a writer enlists the help of a human guinea pig to demonstrate the ineffectiveness of the anti-doping system employed to test athletes? For Bryan Fogel, it meant exposing a state-sponsored doping scheme and one of the greatest sports scandals in history.
Fogel set out to cheat the system by taking performance-enhancing drugs to prepare for the Haute Route, claiming, “I could get away with it, it would imply pretty much any athlete could do it and get away with it.”
Following an introduction to former doctor Grigory Rodchenkov, the head of Moscow’s anti-doping center, he leads Fogel through the Russian-sponsored doping scheme, eventually exposing it when he is implicated by a 2015 WADA report.
What begins as a personal experiment quickly escalates into a worldwide scandal involving inexplicable mortality, soiled urine, and one of the world’s largest doping programs.
Ghislain Lambert’s Cycle
Belgian cyclist Ghislain Lambert, who has the same birthday as Eddy Merckx, has always aspired to be a champion but lacks the necessary stamina.
With vintage bikes, team vehicles, and wool jerseys, the filmmakers have nailed the Merckx period (the video was filmed in 2001).
Lambert’s experience on the Magicreme Maurice Focodel squad is chronicled in this film. Lambert ends up as the “water carrier” with aspirations of fame, but with the aid of his teammate Riccardo, he tries with doping and uses the wrong dosage.
Lambert gets chosen for the Tour de France after falling out of favor with the team, and as the Lanterne Rouge, he becomes the public’s favorite.
The video may seem a little comical at times, with lots of cyclists flying over the bars and into ditches. It’s packed of cultural allusions and some cringey doping jokes.
The film is only accessible in French, however there is an English subtitled version.
All in the Name of One
From the initial training camps until their remarkable triumph in 2016, this documentary film chronicles the GreenEdge (now Mitchelton–Scott) squad, Australia’s first ProTour cycling team.
The finest of the ‘Back Stage Pass’ behind-the-scenes episodes (also produced by Dan Jones) are included, showcasing the team’s Aussie ‘larrikin’ attitude.
All For One also dives into the lives of individual team members, following them through their highs and lows and focusing on a select important riders and their relationships.
The video avoids the tough questions, and the gaps are obvious, but All for One offers a pleasant shift by presenting cycling in a positive light – a stark contrast to many of professional cycling’s dark and problematic corners.
Inside the Movistar Team 2019: The Least Expected Day
The Least Expected Day is a behind-the-scenes look at the 2019 season of Movistar Team, with an emphasis on the three Grand Tours.
The Netflix Movistar documentary series, which spans six episodes, seems to check all the criteria for a classic pro cycling documentary: directeurs sportifs screaming into radio phones, frenzied fans, and heartbreaking moments at the finish line.
Because it’s in Spanish, English viewers will have to rely on subtitles, but that won’t deter real bike aficionados. This is something we’re looking forward to.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a cyclist or not—everyone needs more great road movies in their life. I’ve watched a lot of them. Here are some of the best cycling movies I’ve seen.. Read more about track cycling movie and let us know what you think.
