A-list: Slaying the Badger – and six cycling documentaries every cyclist should see

If you are anything like Southern Spin, one can never get enough cycling. Not even Eurosport’s annual broadcast of 50-plus professional bike races is enough to satisfy the insatiable appetite of ‘The Spin’. Luckily, there has never been a greater interest in cycling worldwide, and with that comes a plethora of movies, documentaries, books, magazines, websites, tours, sportives and the lot to fill the gaps in-between races during the calendar year.

Over the next few months, Southern Spin will be bringing you the ‘A-list’ to uncover, and sometimes re-discover, some of cycling and triathlon’s hidden gems. Yes, cycling, track, mountain biking, BMX and triathlon. Yes, triathlon. Like a bicycle crank, Southern Spin will leave no stone unturned. If it’s a sport with a pushbike, Southern Spin is on top of it. So sit back and enjoy the ride.

To start things off, Southern Spin decided to hit the movies. After all, when there is not a bike race on television, what else is one supposed to do other than watch a film about bike racing? This brings us to a very interesting dilemma. With all the mainstream movies and documentaries out there, it became utterly apparent that the two styles of filmmaking were worlds apart, thus could not be reviewed in the same manner. So before Southern Spin is flooded with hate mail for leaving off such instant classics as Breaking Away and American Flyers, please note that this column is all about cycling documentary films. Southern Spin will get to mainstream movies down the road.

Cycling documentaries have become all the rage, so much so that Southern Spin found itself watching sneak peek premieres of three films in as many weeks in as many months ago.

The following synopsis is spoiler free.

It all started with director John Dower’s Slaying the Badger, based off the best-selling Slaying the Badger: Greg LeMond, Bernard Hinault, and the Greatest Tour de France written by award-winning author Richard Moore.

In direct alignment with its namesake, the film recounts the friendship gone wrong between teammates Greg LeMond and five-time Tour de France winner Bernard ‘The Badger’ Hinault. From the start, Dower does an amazing job of setting the scene, from LeMond’s initial naiveté to his eventual distrust towards his once close friend-turned-bitter rival in Hinault.

“Slaying the Badger goes beyond just a story about a cycling race,” said Dower, who also directed Bradley Wiggins: A Year in Yellow, another outstanding film. “The strange thing about cycling is it’s an individual sport practiced by teams. Within the race there are so many different races. You can win mountain stages, time trial stages. On one it’s such a simple sport and yet extraordinarily complicated.

“What is amazing about this story is the rivalry between two guys on the same team that started out as friends. This extraordinary rival turns friendship into betrayal incredibly quickly. It’s got that Greek mythology about it with one brother trying to kill the other.”

One would be hard pressed to find a more beautifully shot, perfectly orchestrated and dramatically told documentary film anywhere – of any genre. The film is worth the price of admission to see epic panoramas of Northern France, Northern Italy and Switzerland, not to mention the sheer poetry from iconic cycling commentator Phil Liggett’s spine-tingling description of the Alpe d’Huez. With a running time of 78 minutes, the film delivers from the start and leaves viewers wanting more.

Featuring a cast of fresh faces, not like the many Lance Armstrong docos currently on the market, the film sits down with not only Hinault, LeMond and his wife Kathy, but also with noted cycling journalists Francois Thomazeau and Sam Abt, as well as former teammate and compatriot Andrew Hampsten and La Vie Clair directeur sportif Paul Koechli, who would make for a fine Bond villain.

Without giving it all away, the story traces the arch perfectly. From LeMond selflessly delivering a physically inferior Hinault at the time to his record-tying fifth Tour win in 1985, to the veiled alliances and broken promises in 1986 that LeMond had to overcome within his own team to win the first of his three Tour titles and become the first – and still only – American to do so.

Slaying the Badger has everything a filmgoer would want and more. In fact, after watching the film, Southern Spin is convinced that every stage of every bike race should be viewed with the same commentary, musical score and cinematography. Perhaps Eurosport can make that happen.

Dower perhaps sums up this film – his film – the best: “I think we got to the heart of what happens during this incredible race between Hinault and LeMond. I believe Hinault was trying to win his record-breaking sixth Tour… he still maintains to this day that ‘I was merely helping Greg, I was pushing him on’ you make your own mind up,” he said.

“But I think the as the mysterious stories unfold, you are not quite sure of his version of events.”

Six other films worth a watch:

A Sunday in Hell (1976), 111 minutes – It may be hard for some to believe, but with the rapid growth in cycling’s global popularity, there are some in today’s generation that have no knowledge of the sport’s greatest champions, including Coppi, Gimondi and Hinault. A Sunday in Hell provides an opportunity to get up close and personal with arguably the greatest cyclist of all time, Eddy Merckx, over a bone-jarring day in the saddle racing pro cycling’s most brutal race – Paris-Roubaix.

Unlike the more polished 2011 film Hell of the North, A Sunday in Hell is a harder, grittier look at both its subject matter and its landscape. For fans of Formula One, A Sunday in Hell is more reminiscent of Roman Polanski’s Weekend of a Champion.

The pacing and narration of the film is excruciatingly slow, and does not survive the test of time by modern standards. But that is part of its innate charm, that and wool cycling jerseys, steel-frame bikes, clipped pedals and frame-mounted shifting. What’s not to love?

The Armstrong Lie (2013), 122 minutes / Stop at Nothing: The Lance Armstrong Story (2014), 104 minutes – Okay, so Southern Spin admits that these are two separate movies, but then again aren’t they one and the same? Both movies feature the usual suspects, which is probably a poor choice of words considering the only ‘suspect’ is self-confessed doping cheat Lance Armstrong, who is actually not in either film from a first-person standpoint.

The usual ‘cast’ Southern Spin refers to are the former friends, colleagues, teammates and journalist that have become synonymous in the truthful re-telling of the “greatest fraud in the history of sport”. Both films rehash what most already know, but like any good train wreck, it’s hard to look away. Both films are virtually a factual follow up to the now-fictional 2001 documentary Road to Paris.

It’s a pick’em between the two.

Hell on Wheels (2004), 120 minutes – One thing is for certain, filmmakers love to use the word ‘Hell’ in the title of cycling films, and Academy Award-winning director Pepe Danquart is no exception.  The film follows the 100th edition of the Tour de France in 2003 from the perspective of German cyclist Erik Zabel (Team Telekom).

"The Tour has always been a story about men, great ones and lesser ones,” said Zabel in a prophetic comment during the film.

Aside from Zabel, the film also features Lance Armstrong, Jan Ullrich, Tyler Hamilton and Alexandre Vinokurov, all of whom share a common bond in cycling’s past other than simply riding bikes.

The film is superbly captured, and while its validity is questionable in hindsight in light of all the doping admissions and scandals since, it’s worth a look as the pain, fear and courage is still honestly presented.

Bicycle Dreams (2009), 104 minutes – Directed by Stephen Auerbach, this award-winning 2009 doco chronicles the mind-numbing, leg-smashing, soul-destroying 4,800-kilometre (3,000 mile) Race Across America (RAAM).

Focusing on the 2005 edition, the film focuses on a handful of amateur and professional riders, including the late Jure Robič, a five-time race winner, and their epic race against time from San Diego to Atlantic City.

If you think the Tour de France is hard, think again. The RAAM is both life altering, and tragically at times, life ending. Through all types of weather, terrain and physical hardships, Auerbach is there to capture it all on film. Watching Bicycle Dreams is like drinking a big cup of cement, one taste will make one harden up quickly. Remember this film the next time you question an early morning ride in the cold, or in the rain.

Pantani: The Accidental Death of a Cyclist (2014), 96 minutes – Directed by James Erskine, this film is a poignant tale of the life and unfortunate death of one of cycling’s most talented, successful, charismatic and tragic characters. The film perfectly sets a methodical tone that chronicles each moment of brilliance, sadness and ultimate heartbreak that Marco Pantani experienced throughout his short 34 years on earth. Southern Spin admits the film is actually better the second time around.

‘The Pirate’ was arguably the greatest climber to have ever lived. The former winner of both the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia was a villain to rivals, a hero to millions and savour to cycling during troubled times following the infamous Festina Affair, before he himself was accused of doping misconduct – allegations he vehemently rebuked until his last days. No one may ever know the truth, but that’s the beauty of Pantani: The Accidental Death of a Cyclist.

NEXT A-LIST: Climbs and Punishment – and six cycling books every cyclist should read

Aaron S. Lee | Follow on Twitter