The Last Rider

This chronicle of retired American cyclist Greg LeMond’s tiring, tumultuous return to his former glory during the 1989 Tour de France seems like something that would be right at home on ESPN’s acclaimed “30 for 30” documentary series. Unfortunately, there is already a “30 for 30” doc—2014’s “Slaying the Badger”—about an intense Tour de France race LeMond had. 

The story that “Slaying the Badger” lays out—how French cyclist/mentor Bernard Hinault began a rivalry with a young LeMond during the ‘86 Tour after LeMond helped him win the previous year’s Tour—is a brief part of “The Last Rider”’s pain-ridden first half. Although LeMond won that Tour, it’s not a victory he relished. The stone-cold betrayal by Hinault sent him into a depression that also brought back shameful memories of being sexually abused at age 13 by a family friend, yet another, alleged loved one who betrayed him. LeMond literally got hit with a bigger setback when he returned to the States. During a holiday turkey shoot, he was accidentally shot by his brother-in-law, putting him in critical condition. (His wife Kathy tells how she almost went into labor at the same hospital where LeMond fought for his life.)