While this is not a cycling film per se, but more a story about adolescence, “Breaking Away” from 1979 is not just an Oscar-awarded coming-of-age movie, but a comical, while serious story developing around a young man obsessed with cycling.
Click to view video from YouTube
After winning a Masi bicycle, lead character Dave develops an obsessive interest in competitive bicycle racing and anything Italian, the country of great cyclists. While struggling to find his place in the world, he slowly transforms into a “real Italian”, which inevitably is to come to an end once reality hits. After all, he lives in 1960s Bloomington and he is from Indiana, not Italy.
This is a hilarious movie, if you can get hold of it (Helsinki City Library has a copy, listed under the Finnish title “Fillarijengi”).