Film review - The Racer (2020)

The one cyclist everybody’s heard of is also the one who indelibly tarnished the sport’s reputation to the extent that it’s never really shaken it off. The drug scandal surrounding one-time hero Lance Armstrong continues to be inextricably linked to what is one of the most popular spectator sports in mainland Europe and which, in more recent years, has become something of a favourite in the UK. But well before the Tour De made its English debut in 2007 by starting in London, the first three stages of the 1998 race took place in Eire. It proved to be a watershed of the worst kind, revealing the sport’s doping issues and, while no riders actually failed drugs tests, several were disqualified when steroids were found in their hotel rooms.

Those events are both the setting and the driving force for Kieron J Walsh’s The Racer, a fictional of one racer’s pursuit of his dream and how it, and the drugs involved, nearly destroy him. Walsh, who also co-wrote the script, presents us with something close to a thriller, following Dom Chabol (Louis Talpe) who is in the twilight of his career. In his late 30s, he’s a domestique, the pacesetter who clears the way for the team’s star rider but he can never, ever win. Desperate to get his contract renewed, he trains relentlessly and starts taking steroids, encouraged by team masseur Sonny (Iain Glen). But then he learns he’s about to be dropped and a tragedy leads to a re-think.

He doesn’t want to hear it, but Chabol is forcibly reminded half way through the film that he’s “a professional loser”, despite being something of a role model to the younger riders in the team. He’s also a low key character, less prone than his teammates to outbursts of temper and that makes him distant and hard to get to know. The audience face the same issue, so it takes time to become involved in his dilemma, one that’s presented to us in thriller format, with the tension coming from whether his reliance on performance enhancing drugs will catch up with him – either in the form of a drugs test or a heart attack. He has close shaves with both and the double threat never goes away, emphasised by heart pounding soundtrack.

Belgian actor Talpe is an unfamiliar face to British audiences, but he gives a literally muscular performance, with the camera regularly closing in his physique and there are times when he appears to be nothing more than a mass of muscle, sinew, sweat and veins. It reflects the film’s cynicism about the sport and, ultimately, that strengthens our sympathy for somebody who is, let’s face it, breaking the law. Our feelings are the complete opposite for Iain Glen’s sleazy masseur, the keeper of the drugs and the needles and who delights in scoffing massive cheeseburgers at dinner while all the athletes around him have to eat plain pasta.

While The Racer doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know about cycling – it’s all been well-publicised – it comes together to make a well-paced drama with cycling sequences that feel more like a documentary. One particular pile-up will stick in your memory. Walsh manages to pull off his morality tale/crime drama combo with intelligence and enough style to keep you watching right to the end.