What comes to mind when you think of the scent of fresh buttery popcorn? What about when you listen for the fizzle of an ice-cold soda? Or even imagine the taste of a hot slice of pizza? Chances are you do not think of cycling outside on a sunny day. But you certainly might be thinking about the perfect way to enjoy an award-winning cycling movie at home.
Cycling enthusiasts will be delighted to find our list of the 10 best biking movies below. Don’t let a little rain or cold stop you from enjoying your favorite pastime. Grab some tasty food and drinks and make a night of it. Sit back, relax, and turn on one of the following dramatic cycling movies or extreme mountain biking documentaries. You might even get some fun ideas for your next ride!
Breaking Away
Follow Dave Stohler and his friends in this coming-of-age story set in Bloomington, Indiana. We all know how hard it can be to decide what to do with your life after high school. These teens find their way on this crazy journey we call life by mixing up sweetheart crushes, difficult parents, and a fierce love for competitive bike racing. It’s not all fun and games though. Dave must overcome all sorts of trials and tribulations if he’s to realize his potential and “break away” from his childhood in this bike racing movie.
Awards: Academy Award Best Picture Nominee, Best Director Nominee and Winner of Best Original Screenplay
Length: 101 minutes
IMDB Rating: 7.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Rating: 88% Fresh
Kilimanjaro: Mountain of Greatness
For an epic look into the lives of riding best mountain bikes in the world, check out Kilimanjaro - Mountain of Greatness, a mountain biking documentary by Red Bull. Follow various riders all the way up and down Mount Kilimanjaro in this never-before-seen footage from Red Bull. If real action shots, excellent production value, and bikers taking huge risks with great payoff are your interests, you won’t want to miss this extreme biking documentary.
Awards: N/A
Length: 31 minutes
IMDB Rating: N/A
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Rating: N/A
Bicycle Thief
Also known by its alternative name, Bicycle Thieves, this 1948 film is shot in black and white and depicts a dramatic telling of a poor father who must recover his stolen bike which he needs to provide for his family. With twists and turns in the story to delight any bike fan by using all terrain bike, Antonio Ricci and his son Bruno go to extraordinary lengths all around Rome to try and find the thief who stole his bicycle and make him return it.
Awards: NYFCC Award, Best Foreign Language Film; Golden Globe, Best Foreign Film
Length: 89 minutes
IMDB Rating: 7/10
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Rating: 94% Fresh
ICARUS
Competitive sports lovers (including competitive cycling) will want to add Icarus to their list of must-watch documentaries. Icarus has it all: political intrigue, unsolved mystery, and a riveting story uncovered by journalists from the New York Times about cheating at the highest level. Illegal doping in sports has always been a problem, but never at this magnitude or with this much at stake for the athletes. Follow the jaw-dropping story as it unravels for viewers across the globe and on the world stage of the Olympics.
Awards: Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature
Length: 121 minutes
IMDB Rating: 7.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Rating: 94% Fresh
The Flying Scotsman
In this true story based in a small Scottish town, a young boy discovers his means for escaping his bullies and his own mind: competitive cycling. Using big wheel bike, Graeme Obree turns the world of bike racing on its head and invokes plenty of naysayers who wanted to see him fail. The Flying Scotsman showcases one of the most inspiring stories about bucking conventional trends and going your own way even when everyone is telling you to go back. Cycling world records will be broken one way or another in this feel-good 2006 cycling movie starring Jonny Lee Miller, Billy Boyd, and Brian Cox.
Awards: BAFTA Scotland Award Best Film Nominee and Best Actor/Actress in a Scottish Film Nominee
Length: 96 minutes
IMDB Rating: 7.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Rating: 51% Fresh
Wadjda
Wadjda is an authentic Saudi Arabian movie that forces audiences to reconsider gender and cultural norms around the world. In this groundbreaking film, follow a young girl named Wadjda as she grapples with her teachers, parents, and a society that wants to tell her how to live her own life. In a part of the world that questions whether girls should even be riding bikes, Wadjda uses this doubt as a source of courage to find her own interests and talents in the unlikely realm of cycling.
Awards: Cinema for Peace Award, Interfilm Award Venice Film Festival; Audience Award Best Picture Los Angeles Film Festival
Length: 98 minutes
IMDB Rating: 7.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Rating: 88% Fresh
Tour de Pharmacy
With plenty of celebrity cameos and jokes to go around, Tour de Pharmacy is a comical look at the world of extreme bicycle racing. Poking fun at the world of illegal doping has never been so easy in this 2017 mockumentary starring Andy Samberg, Orlando Bloom, and John Cena. After an offensive mishap at a bike race, Italian cyclist JuJu Peppi lands himself and other cyclists in hot water with authorities. From there on out it’s a laugh a minute in this made-for-tv short movie as a host of talented actors and actresses pretend to be serious bike riders and run into all sorts of issues with dope, each other, and the reporters trying to make sense of it all.
Awards: N/A
Length: 41 minutes
IMDB Rating: 7.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Rating: 73% Fresh
All For One
All For One is a documentary about an Australian cycling group that truly embodies the spirit of team. Watch as 5 years of training and camaraderie pays off for the ultimate ProTour experience. Get a behind-the-scenes look at the entertaining and sometimes grueling world of professional cycling with a bit of partying thrown in for good measure. The Tour de France demands the highest level of skill, stamina, and resolve and its displayed perfectly in each team member that brings this inspirational biking documentary to your screen.
Awards: N/A
Length: 107 minutes
IMDB Rating: 8.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Rating: 100% Fresh
Belleville Rendez-Vous
Also known as The Triplets of Belleville, this enchanting French animated story has cycling take center stage as a Tour de France rider is kidnapped and his grandmother and her friends go to whatever lengths necessary to get him back. Mafia gangs, big city clubs, and car chases down dark alleys abound in this charming and unique and often comedic take on a serious hostage situation for our professional cyclist.
Awards: Academy Award Best Animated Feature Nominee
Length: 80 minutes
IMDB Rating: 7.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Rating: 90% Fresh
Rising From Ashes
From two non-profit organizations comes the incredible story of Jock Boyer helping to build one of Africa’s top biking teams. But the real heroes of this story are the struggling genocide survivors fighting against all odds to find salvation on two wheels. Narrated by Forrest Whitaker, this film takes you on the incredible journey of Rwandan children like Adrien Niyonshuti who were left abandoned, illiterate, and hungry as they shockingly turn their ill-fated futures around and begin preparing for the Olympics.
Awards: 2012 Heartland Film Festival Award Winner
Length: 82 minutes
IMDB Rating: 7.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Rating: 84% Fresh
No matter if you are in the mood for a competitive cycling documentary, an animated international film, or a comedy about the crazier side of professional cycling, you are sure to find something worth watching in our list of the 10 best cycling movies. Grab your popcorn and take a seat!
