Full on Sport

Football, Racing, Rugby + More

    • Cycling Documentaries: From the Tour de France to the Doping Scandals

    There are some sports that it is almost impossible for ‘normal’ people to relate to. Watch the ice dancing at the Winter Olympics, for example, and the vast majority of us would have no real sense of what it is that goes into competing in such a thing.

    Similarly, horse riding events are something that many of us will never have even thought about being able to do. One thing many of us can do, though, is ride a bike, having been doing so from an early age.

    Much like with football or swimming, however, doing it at the very top requires an entirely different level of devotion and ability, so watching documentaries is the next best thing.

    Here are some of the more fascinating ones you can watch:

    Tour de France: Unchained

    • Format: Documentary series
    • First Released: 2023
    • Length: Approximately 34–50 minutes per episode
    • Episodes: 24 episodes across three seasons
    • UK Age Rating: 15
    • Watch in the UK: Netflix with a subscription
    • Accessibility: English subtitles and French audio description are available.

    As soon as Formula One: Drive to Survive became the epic success that it did, it was obvious that the team behind it would soon start making similar such programmes about other sports. Tour de France: Unchained is the cycling version, albeit specifically focused on the Tour de France.

    There have been three seasons of it, starting with the 2022 iteration of the competition and following selected riders and their teams as they prepared to take on one of the most gruelling challenges that the sport has to offer. It was released on the eighth of June 2023, offering eight episodes of about 40 minutes per episode.

    Interestingly, the defending champion from the year before, Tadej Pogačar, didn’t feature because the team that he was racing for, UAE Team Emirates, opted out of taking part. As you can probably work out for yourself, season two followed the 2023 Tour de France and season three the same competition in 2024.

    If you have ever wanted to know what it is that goes into preparing a team of cyclists for the Tour de France, this is a decent place to start. Obviously, there is an extent to which it is a somewhat sanitised version of events, but the documentary series does boast a virtually unprecedented amount of behind-the-scenes footage.

    All For One

    • Format: Feature-length documentary
    • First Released: 2017
    • Length: 1 hour 43 minutes
    • UK Age Rating: Unrated
    • Watch in the UK: Free on YouTube. Available to rent or purchase from Amazon Video and the Apple TV Store.
    • Accessibility: English closed captions are available. Flashing lights and strobing patterns.

    Believe it or not, it took until the launch of a team called GreenEDGE before Australia had a ProTour cycling team. Perhaps somewhat unsurprisingly given the nature of the country as a whole, the team boasted a renegade spirit that saw them look to win against all the odds.

    The documentary meets the riders and explains the reasoning behind the launch of the team, offering an in-depth look at how they attacked the international circuit. In All For One, we are taken on an emotional rollercoaster that begins with the team’s very inception. The chances are that you will shed a tear or two during the watching of this.

    It would be untrue to suggest that it offers a deep dive on the more unsavoury aspects of cycling as a whole, but there are plenty of documentaries that will offer you exactly that if that’s your poison. This is not a film to watch if you’re looking for impartiality, with the documentary maker regularly forgetting any notion of giving us an unbiased opinion on proceedings.

    The good news is that that doesn’t really matter, thanks in no small part to the excellent personalities and the camaraderie of the Aussie cyclists who understand both the size of the challenge in front of them and the added pressure of being the first team to represent their country.

    The Least Expected Day: Inside the Movistar Team 2019

    • Format: Documentary series
    • First Released: 2020
    • Length: Approximately 22–39 minutes per episode
    • Episodes: 16 episodes across three seasons
    • UK Age Rating: 12
    • Watch in the UK: Netflix with a subscription
    • Language: Spanish with English subtitles

    Originally entitled El Día Menos Pensado, to give it its Spanish name, The Least Expected Day is a look inside the UCI World Tour team’s struggles during the 2019 version of the competition. It is based across two seasons, with the second taking place a year later.

    In the first episode of the first season, we are introduced to all of the key players, from the manager through to the numerous different cyclists, all of whom have their own battles to contend with as the year progresses. Taking in the likes of the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the Tour Colombia, this is a thrilling look at numerous different aspects of the World Tour.

    Least Expected Day Inside the Moviestar Team 2019

    As with any Netflix-produced documentary that gets behind-the-scenes access, there is obviously an extent to which the ‘truth’ of the more nitty-gritty side of things is cut out in the editing suite.

    Even so, we still get to see some interesting aspects of the season, including the tensions that were bubbling under the surface between Nairo Quintana and Mikel Landa. In Spanish but with English subtitles, that itself tells you quite a lot about the issues that the squad has faced over the years thanks to the language barrier. The doors were opened for every pre-race meeting and all times where the documentary-makers could get something thrilling on tape.

    A Sunday in Hell

    • Format: Feature-length documentary
    • First Released: 1977
    • Length: 1 hour 51 minutes
    • Watch in the UK: Free on YouTube. No subscription, rental or purchase streaming option.
    • Language: Originally made in Danish. Versions with English narration or English subtitles can be found on YouTube.

    For those in the know about cycling, the Paris-Roubaix spring classic is one of the best known and most interesting. For those that aren’t, it is a gruelling race that culminates on narrow, cobbled tracks that are covered with dust if it’s a dry day and become slick with mud if it rains.

    This 1976 documentary looks at the race that took place that year, encapsulating the atmosphere of a professional race. We meet the main contenders, who are Eddy Merckx, Roger De Vlaeminck, Freddy Maertens and Francesco Moser, with De Vlaeminck being the winner of the race the previous year, as well as their supporting riders.

    A Sunday in Hell Documentary

    Along the way, we hear from the likes of the team directors, mechanics and spectators, as well as from some protestors who happened to be able to get the race stopped for a short period. By the time the riders make it over the cobbled section and on towards the velodrome of Roubaix, only a few are still in with a shout of winning, such is the extent that the preceding part of the race has taken it out of them.

    This was once called ‘arguably the best film ever made about professional cycling’, so it is very much worth a watch if that is a subject that interests you. Yes, the technology has changed, but the battle has long remained the same.

    Icarus

    • Format: Feature-length documentary
    • First Released: 2017
    • Length: 2 hours 1 minute
    • UK Age Rating: 15
    • Watch in the UK: Netflix with a subscription
    • Accessibility: English audio description and English subtitles are available.

    If you like documentaries that seem to start as one thing before becoming something else along the way, Icarus is definitely one that should be on your list. At the start of proceedings, the documentary maker, Bryan Fogel, begins with a premise of saying that the existing policies around the use of performance-enhancing drugs aren’t good enough.

    The high-level amateur cyclist soon gets in touch with a Russian scientist called Grigory Rodchenkov, who is in charge of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory and agrees to help him with his experiments, giving him performance-enhancing drugs that don’t result in a positive test for banned substances.

    After Fogel does worse in a race than he had done whilst doping, he visits Rodchenkov in Russia before learning about allegations of an Olympic doping scandal that was sponsored by the Russian state. Suddenly, the documentary switches to being about Rodchenkov and the fear he faces of being ‘silenced’ by the government, organising with Fogel to flee to America in order to go into hiding.

    Soon, the scientist is testifying that he has helped Russian athletes to get away with doping for years, giving material to the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Olympic Committee to launch an investigation into what happened.

    Lance

    • Format: Two-part documentary film
    • First Released: 2020
    • Length: Approximately 3 hours 22 minutes in total
    • Episodes: Two episodes in one season
    • UK Age Rating: 12+
    • Watch in the UK: Disney+, Sky Go or NOW with a subscription
    • Accessibility: Subtitles and closed captions are available.

    When it comes to cycling, it is impossible to discuss the topic without the subject of Lance Armstrong coming to the fore. Split over two parts, this documentary looks at one of the sport’s most inspirational figures, who quickly became infamous after news of his doping emerged.

    Directed by Marina Zenovich, Lance has extensive interviews not only with the cyclist himself, but also with a number of different people who were connected to his story in one way or another. From friends and rivals to journalists and former teammates, we go on a journey from the moment he gets recognised through to his numerous doping issues.

    In many ways, this is a documentary that is all about denial, with Armstrong showing little regret for what he did but plenty of anger at the way his story has been portrayed. Growing up with an abusive stepfather, the film starts with Armstrong declaring, “It’s a miracle I’m not a mass murderer” on the back of how he was brought up.

    The film’s subject grew accustomed to bending the rules from an early age, thanks to the fact that he had to forge his birth certificate in order to take part in his first triathlon, which should have been limited to those aged 16 and over. You are unlikely to finish watching this with much sympathy for the subject.