Breaking Away—a 1979 Hollywood film about bicycling—is still cited by many veteran cycle industry executives as a market mover; the movies helped to popularize road cycling to a mainstream audience.
And with the cycle industry still languishing in the post-pandemic doldrums many executives will be hoping Hard Miles will become today’s Breaking Away.
Released in April, the movie stars Oppenheimer-actor Matthew Modine as a coach who inspires a group of young offenders to ride 760 miles across the desert from Denver to the Grand Canyon.
Based on the true story of the cycling team at Rite of Passage’s RidgeView Academy, a medium-security correctional school in Colorado, the film follows Townsend (Modine) as he rounds up an unlikely crew of incarcerated students for a seemingly impossible bike ride.
The film was directed by RJ Daniel Hanna (Miss Virginia), and also stars Cynthia Kaye McWilliams (Average Joe, Bosch), Leslie David Baker (The Office), Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings), Jahking Guillory (On My Block), Jackson Kelly (Lucky Hank), Damien Diaz (Shameless) and Zachary T. Robbins (Bloodline).
The beginner bicyclists battle heatstroke, speed wobbles, and squished testicles, but they learn to stop fighting and ride together as a peloton.
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