Reading time: 2 – 3 minutes

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down and watching some cycling movie classics so I thought I would pair them in a cycling movie round-up for all of you. Enjoy!

American Flyers

American Flyers is the story of two brothers, one of which has a terminal illness (nope, I’m not going to say which one). The older of the brothers is an accomplished cyclist and the younger is a great cyclist as well but never really took to the races like his brother. The older brother then convinces the younger to join up with him for a race (queue the training and race montages) and you’ll need to check out the film for the conclusion. There are some great race scenes and the soundtrack has some killer 80s tunes (no dance montage in this one though). You’ll also be able to gain some insight into bicycle racing tactics which can be helpful when you watch the 2007 Tour de France.

Breaking Away

Breaking Away is the story of a group of Indiana high school grads that are trying to shake the townie image by throwing down on occasion with the Indiana University students in their town. While the four friends all have different paths in life there is one who wants to race bicycles professionally and takes it to the extreme by acting like he’s Italian. After a large fight between the locals and the IU students the boys are asked to duke it out with the IU students by taking part in the famed Little 500. Again, cue training and race montages and the outcome… you’ll have to check out the film (hint: the friend into bike racing helps a lot). Side note: Breaking Away won the Oscar in 1979 for Best Original Screenplay.

Conclusion

These films were both produced in the bike boom and are well made films (Breaking Away being the better one). If you love bikes you’ll love them both but if you aren’t a huge cycling fan I would stick to Breaking Away since it’s just a nice feel good film.