The Last Rider

The story of Greg LeMond has been written about many times before. How he broke into the European cycling scene, overthrowing the king of cycling (Bernard Hinault), before being almost fatally shot and then painfully clawing his way back to the very top.

However these have tended to be one-dimensional accounts that fail to capture the humanity behind the moving images. This is where "The Last Rider" really scores. We get to hear from LeMond and his wife, obviously, but also friends, competitors and bosses. These interviews add real dimension to LeMond's struggle and place it nicely in the context of European racing at that time.

Still what really centred the film for me was how it revealed the wonderful relationship between LeMond and his wife. They are real childhood sweethearts and she has supported him through all of the highs and the lows (of which there were many). This is the core of his success since for all of his physical gifts LeMond would have achieved much, much less without her.