The Last Rider: An inspiring and moving look back at the incredible 1989 Tour de France

The Last Rider (E, 101 mins) Directed by Alex Holmes ****½

1989 has been a good year for Alex Holmes.

It was the year that British sailor Tracy Edwards skippered the first all-women crew in the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race. Holmes made a terrific film about Edwards and that race. It is called Maiden. It’s available on plenty of local streamers. You’ll like it.

1989 was also the year that American cyclist Greg LeMond won his second Tour de France, after coming back from being near death after an accidental shooting. And now Holmes has made a terrific film about LeMond and his career. It’s in cinemas at the moment – and, ditto.

LeMond had won Le Tour in 1986. He was the first – and only – American to do so. But at the 1989 starting line, with more than 40 shotgun pellets still in his body and having lost 12kgs of muscle mass in surgery only a year before, LeMond wasn’t on anyone’s list of serious contenders, or even likely finishers.

Holmes fills in the very likeable LeMond’s backstory with some simply staged interviews with LeMond and wife Kathy – and then tells the arc of his career and triumphs with some well selected archival footage.

The story that emerges is genuinely inspiring and moving. You won’t need to be a fan of cycling or sports documentaries to appreciate who LeMond is, and what he, his family and his teammates achieved.

Late in The Last Rider, someone makes the point that LeMond and his fellow riders made possible the very best and last of the great races before the decades of EPO, Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis.

Alex Holmes is a controlled and unflashy film-maker who knows how to get out of the way of his stories once he has set them in motion. Very recommended.

The Last Rider is now screening in select cinemas nationwide.