Tour de Force: the 7 best cycling films
In honour of Le Tour, here's our choice of the best movies on two wheels
So the Tour de France 2015 kicked off yesterday and you’ll have likely had one of two reactions: “Brilliant! I’m inspired to go out on my bike” or “Brilliant! I’m going to watch it all on TV”.
For those of you in the first camp, may we point you in the direction of this feature about buying a sexy new bike for yourself. You smug so-and-so.
And for those in the latter? We think you’ll enjoy this list of the best pedal-powered films we’ve seen. Just don’t overdo it getting the remote.
1. Pantani: The accidental death of a cyclist
Winner of both the Tour and the Giro d’Italia in 1998, Marco Pantani was a flamboyant cyclist and legendary mountain specialist who died just six years later at the age of 34 in 2004, alone in an Italian hotel room.
This excellent documentary explores the tragic final descent of the man known as ‘The Pirate’, from the pinnacle of sporting glory to cocaine-fuelled oblivion.
Buy Pantani: The Accidental Death of a Cyclist (£9), on DVD here
2. The Flying Scotsman
Graeme Obree went from a bullied childhood to champion cyclist by designing his own bikes and revolutionising body-position aerodynamics.
Playing Obree, Jonny Lee Miller does a good line in paranoia. This 2006 film is missing Obree’s more recent revelations, though.
3. Breaking Away
This coming-of-age 1979 classic has small-town boys versus college jerks, a cyclist obsessed with Italians, and some of the best fictional road-bike action ever committed to film. It’ll make you want to find an old Masi Gran Criterium, chase lorries and start talking Italian. “Ciao, Papa!”
Buy Breaking Away (£9), on DVD here
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4. Belleville Rendezvous
French cartoon comedy without dialogue? Er…quelle surprise, this is utterly charming. A young rider is kidnapped during the Tour de France. His granny and her dog enlist the help of a trio of old-time entertainers to track him down. More bonkers than it sounds. And that’s pretty bonkers.
5. A Sunday in Hell
Jørgen Leth’s stunning follow-up to The Stars And The Water Carriers is a doc about the Paris-Roubaix, one of cycling’s legendary fixtures. Leth captures the drama, heartbreak and torturous conditions with an atmospheric score. Most of road-racing’s ’70s elite are here.
6. BMX Bandits
Surely that’s not a young Nicole Kidman tearing up the streets in pink and yellow with matching pads? After Bob Haro’s biking prowess in E.T., this was the movie that sold a thousand Raleigh Burners. The storyline, featuring bungling robbers and some stolen walkie-talkies, is truly terrible, but this is still essential viewing for the BMX brigade.
7. Höllentour (aka Hell On Wheels)
An insight into the murky world of the Armstrong-era Tour De France, this documentary follows the (mis)fortunes of the T-Mobile team as they struggle to compete on cycling’s biggest stage.
It heavily focuses on the relationship between Erik Zabel and team-mate Rolf Aldag. The moments where Zabel talks frankly about how he can’t compete with his rivals are heartbreaking – he looks and sounds like an also-ran rather than the man who’d previously won the green jersey for six consecutive years from 1996 to 2001. Shame about a soundtrack that’s straight outta the ’80s.
Buy Höllentour (£7), on DVD here
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Mark Wilson
Features editor 
