Cyclist
The best cycling documentaries 2025
There are plenty of cycling documentaries out there – some excellent, some good, some average, some… not very good. In recent years, we have been treated to a host of cycling documentaries made by teams themselves, TV networks and online streaming services like Netflix. We’re spoilt for choice.
Over the past two years Netflix’s Tour de France documentary Unchained has stolen the headlines, with storylines covering Tom Pidcock’s relationship with Ineos, Vingegaard’s superstar time-trial and Thibaut Pinot’s last Tour de France were all put under a microscope.
There are plenty of cycling documentaries throughout the years, however. Some are obvious – A Sunday in Hell, for example – but some less so. Who remembers the classic 1991 Motorola team documentary? With that in mind, here’s our pick of the best cycling documentaries.
The 18 best cycling documentaries
1. A Sunday in Hell, 1976

For many, Jørgen Leth’s 1976 masterpiece A Sunday in Hell is at the pinnacle of cycling documentaries and perfectly encapsulates the splendid horror of cycling’s greatest race, warts and all. Has there ever been a better leading cast than Eddy Merckx, Roger De Vlaeminck, Francesco Moser and Freddy Maertens?
The best bit of it all is De Vlaeminck, sideburns perfectly shaped for the big day ahead, polishing off a rare steak the morning of the race. If it’s good enough for ‘Monsieur Paris-Roubaix’ then surely it’s good enough for us.
- Watch on YouTube

2. The Stars and the Water Carriers, 1973

Another classic brought to us by Leth, narrated in the forthright tones of David Sanders. This time, the documentary follows Danish hopeful Ole Ritter as he negotiates his way through the 1973 Giro d’Italia. There’s plenty of Merckx drilling it on the front, lots of riders nicking beer from a passing truck mid-stage and a suitable amount of cap luft too.
- Watch on YouTube
3. Icarus, 2017
Bryan Fogel (no relation to TV presenter Ben) unsuccessfully attempts to dope his way to victory at the Haute Route multi-day sportive series. Next thing he knows, he has uncovered the largest doping ring in professional sport since the East Germans in the 1980s.
We’ll stop ourselves from saying much more so as not to give away any spoilers but what we will say is that Grigory Rodchenkov is the most lovable villain in cinematic history.
Icarus even won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 2018.
- Watch on Netflix
4. Tour de France: Unchained, 2023-present
The creators of F1’s Drive to Survive on Netflix have produced a docuseries following the Tour de France. Now approaching its third series, the second showed a big improvement in its appeal for established fans of cycling and revealed much behind-the-scenes drama that fans weren’t aware of before watching.
A third series is in the works and should be released in the summer of 2025.
- Watch on Netflix
- Read our full review of season two
5. Stop at Nothing: The Lance Armstrong Story, 2014
‘I was in the 53×11 and he just rode past me,’ an aghast Lance Armstrong says of Miguel Indurain who had just made him look like a junior during the Stage 9 time-trial during the 1994 Tour de France. It’s almost as if being embarrassed by Big Mig that day was a tipping point for Armstrong, as if this was the exact moment when he decided he would do whatever it takes to win, to stop at nothing.
This is an excellent documentary, not least for the insights offered by Betsy Andreu, the straight-talking wife of former US Postal rider Frankie.
- Watch on Google Play
- Watch on Prime Video
6. Mark Cavendish: Never Enough, 2023
Netflix’s assault on the cycling market reached a new level in the summer of 2023 with the release of a full-length documentary covering Mark Cavendish.
The film follows the 2011 World Champion from the 2016 Tour de France to the 2021 Tour with race reactions, behind-the-scenes footage, clippings and talking heads from Cavendish, his wife Peta, long-time teammate and friend Bernie Eisel, Dimension Data coach Rolf Aldag, sports psychologist Dr David Spindler, close friend Pete Kennaugh, Soudal-QuickStep principal Patrick Lefevere and his Soudal-QuickStep and Astana coach Vasilis Anastopoulos.
One thing missed out on, however, is his final Tour. The documentary was made before Cavendish’s historic 35th stage win at the 2024 Tour, so look out for that in the upcoming series of Tour de France: Unchained.
- Watch on Netflix
7. Pantani: The Accidental Death of a Cyclist, 2014
Have you watched Asif Kapadia’s exceptional biographical documentary about Diego Maradona? Well, you should, it’s fantastic.
Pantani: The Accidental Death of a Cyclist reminds me of Kapadia’s work on Maradona but not because both track the eventual fall from grace of an exceptionally talented athlete. Like when watching Maradona, there are points in the Marco Pantani documentary where his gift for riding bikes is allowed to play out on screen uninterrupted and at those moments we found ourselves without words for the sheer brilliance on display.
8. Clean Spirit, 2014
It’s fair to say we haven’t stopped singing the praises of this documentary since its release…
As the team discuss whether Mark Cavendish intentionally crashed into Argos-Shimano’s Tom Veelers, a babyfaced Tom Dumoulin reaches across the dinner table in search of some butter for his roll, oblivious to the conversation being held. John Degenkolb is furious with Cavendish, seething. Meanwhile, Marcel Kittel, the team’s star, is coy about the whole situation.
At points, this documentary tells of the sheer mundanity in the life of a cyclist during a Grand Tour and at those moments does it become most enthralling. It was briefly hosted on Netflix before being taken off and has since bounced around hosts. It looks like the latest platform to make it available is Apple TV, while it’s even available in DVD form (remember those!) through Amazon US.
- Available on Apple TV
9. MAMIL, 2018
Unlike the rest of the entries on this list, this one is not a glimpse into the alien-like lives of professional cyclists. Instead, this is a documentary that’s much closer to home – an affectionate look at ‘middle-aged men in Lycra’ (MAMILs) and what urges them to indulge in such an obsession with bicycles. What this one lacks in drama, it makes up for in heartwarming stories.
Also from MadMan films is the cycling documentary All For One.
- Read our review of the MAMIL documentary
- Buy from Amazon
10. Slaying the Badger, 2014
The 1986 Tour de France may well be the greatest cycling race of all time, so it’s no surprise this ESPN ‘30 for 30’ documentary retelling the battle between teammates Bernard Hinault and Greg LeMond is pretty good.
To fully explain Hinault’s actions throughout this race, particularly when it became obvious that LeMond was the better rider, I need to borrow a term from the world of football: pure shithousery.
- Buy the 30 for 30 episode on Google Play
11. Geraint Thomas: The Road will Decide, 2019
The road did decide, didn’t it? It’s just that this time it chose 22-year-old Colombian Egan Bernal. This particular documentary was made by the BBC and followed Geraint Thomas the year after he won yellow at the Tour de France. It’s interesting because you see the pressures and expectations that are mounted on a Tour winner and you become increasingly impressed by the idea that anyone can win consecutive Grand Tours.
We also enjoy it because Cyclist’s former digital editor Joe Robinson makes a fleeting cameo appearance too.
- Watch on YouTube
12. The 1991 Motorola Cycling Team documentary, 1991
The pièce de résistance of this entire documentary following the Motorola team through the 1991 Spring Classics campaign is the awkward chat between Andy Hampsten and Eddy Merckx in the lead-up to Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Hampsten is explaining his detailed training routine to Merckx who clearly doesn’t understand why he isn’t just riding 300km a day and then winning every race he enters because that’s what worked for him.
We also enjoyed John Tomac forgetting his passport to cross the border between Belgium and France.
- Watch on YouTube
13. 23 Days in July, 1983
Tracking Australian Phil Anderson’s attempts to become the first non-European to win the Tour de France, this hour-long documentary has everything you could possibly need.
Cameos from Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche, an incredibly well-spoken narrator, a synth soundtrack led by Kraftwerk’s seminal Tour de France tune and expert analysis from a young ‘disco-inspired’ Phil Liggett. What’s not to love?
- Watch on YouTube
14. Code Geel, 2020

Following the Dutch team’s riders and staff, Code Geel (Dutch for ‘Code Yellow’) follows the trials and tribulations of Jumbo-Visma’s almost-perfect 2020 Tour de France. It seemed almost too perfect by the time Stage 20 of the race came around. Dutch broadcaster NOS managed to get behind-the-scenes access to the team, allowing them to interview the likes of Wout van Aert, Tom Dumoulin and Primož Roglič throughout the infamous Covid Tour.
This documentary, half in Dutch, half in English, examines how the team wrangled the 2020 Tour, only to lose it all on the penultimate stage’s time-trial up the Planche des Belles Filles. The riders and staff don’t hold back as they try to come to terms with Tadej Pogačar’s ride.
- Watch on NOS
15. De Ronde 104
The 2020 edition of the Tour of Flanders was one for the ages. In capturing this unique lockdown edition of the race with no fans, the race organisers produced an hour-long documentary following the teams, riders, race organisers, photographers and TV commentators during the 104th edition of this great race.
Interspersed with footage from the day’s race that ended up in an epic two-up sprint between Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert, the film takes you inside the inner workings of the Flemish Monument. We get to go inside the team cars and commentary booth to see the reactions to Van der Poel’s first Monument victory, Julian Alaphilippe’s hair-raising crash and all the Covid protocols necessary at this time in history.
These hour-long documentaries are archived on Flanders Classics’ YouTube channel, following the Tours of Flanders from 2016 to 2020.
- Watch on YouTube
16. Andy Schleck: My Tour, 2011
2011 was an important year for Luxembourgish talent Andy Schleck. Following a significant rebrand at his team, Schleck set eyes on winning the Tour de France – something he didn’t realise he had achieved the year prior due to a retrospective doping ban imposed on rival Alberto Contador.
The hour-long film made for Dutch TV follows Schleck throughout the 2011 season, covering his pre-Tour warmup to his close-call at the race. That year also marked the death of his Leopard-Trek teammate Wouter Weylandt, who suffered a fatal crash at the Giro d’Italia. With fly-on-the-wall coverage of the team bus, his home in Luxembourg and teammates.
- Watch on YouTube
- Listen to our podcast with Andy Schleck
17. The Least Expected Day, 2020-22
Before Unchained and Cavendish’s doc, Movistar opened their doors to TV producers for the three series-long show titled ‘The Least Expected Day’ (El Día Menos Pensado in Spanish). Covering the 2019, 2020 and 2021 seasons, the Spanish-language series gets up close and personal with the riders and staff during three seasons filled with ups and downs. The major plotlines of each year are followed closely, including Richard Carapaz’s surprise Giro win in 2019, Miguel Ángel López’s rage-fuelled 2021 Vuelta and the arrival of Annemiek van Vleuten.
The show is currently available on Netflix in the UK. A fourth series is available on Telefonica’s streaming service in Spain but it has not been subtitled in English and is not expected to receive a promotion to Netflix.
- Watch on Netflix
18. Bradley Wiggins: A Year in Yellow, 2012
There are two good documentaries covering Team Sky’s remarkable 2012 calendar: Team Sky’s Road to Glory and Bradley Wiggins’s Year in Yellow. Although Road to Glory is a longer-form series, we’ve opted for the hour-long documentary that’s available in full on YouTube.
The film follows Bradley Wiggins during his monumental 2012 year, one that saw him win Paris-Nice, the Tour de Romandie, Critérium du Dauphiné, Tour de France and Olympic gold. We get to meet his family at his former home in the North West of England before following reporters team staff and teammates throughout the bulk of the Tour de France.
- Watch on YouTube
Happy watching.

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