For those who have been looking to relive the cinematic cycling thrill of the 1979 classic Breaking Away, the upcoming movie Hard Miles is for you.
Starring 2024 Best Picture Oppenheimer actor Matthew Modine, Hard Miles draws from the true story of the cycling team at Rite of Passage’s Ridge View Academy, a medium-security correctional school in Watkins, Colorado.
The film centers around school social worker-turned cycling coach Greg Townsend (played by Modine) as he orchestrates an unlikely group - ragtag boys with no cycling experience in his shop class at Ridge View Academy - into a peloton at the request of the school administration who believe it will “look good” for the school to have something wholesome to share with donors.
However, as viewers can imagine, the “hoods in the woods” campaign becomes so much more than putting up a positive front to appease school donors.
Townsend recruits a group of boys known for sparring with each other in the halls of the school to his newly formed peloton (in which Townsend rides a robin’s egg blue Ventum bike), telling the boys that once they learn how to ride, their bicycles will become an extension of who they are.
The juvenile delinquents are understandably skeptical at first, with one scene depicting the boys complaining about how much their cycling saddles hurt their buttocks while out for an initial training ride.
As many of us have when coaxing new cyclists on their first rides, Townsend yells back, “You’ll get used to it!”
Along the way, the unorthodox peloton is frequently doubted by many, including other social workers at the Ridge View Academy. Many try to talk Townsend out of guiding a group of such inexperienced cyclists on a potentially dangerous bikepacking trip, but Townsend and the peloton commit to setting forth.
During their journey from Denver to the Grand Canyon, the crew face obstacles that go beyond the expected dehydration and exhaustion of such an ambitious ride; they must learn to trust each other, to support each other and to sacrifice their own desires for the greater good.
Townsend isn’t a perfect coach, though - and his own flaws come to head as he pushes the boys to multiple breaking points on their journey as a peloton. Townsend is on his own quest to learn how to take his own advice about forgiveness and growth as he navigates his relationship with his dying father.
Other actors of note in Hard Miles include Sean Astin (“Lord of the Rings,” “Rudy”), Leslie David Baker (“The Office”) and Damien Diaz (“Shameless”).
Hard Miles has been awarded numerous accolades including the Audience Award at the 2023 Denver Film Festival, Winner at the 2023 Heartland International Film Festival and the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the 2023 Naples International Film Festival.
The film will be released on Monday, April 19 at more than 350 movie theaters nationwide.
