Le Velo de Ghislain Lambert

On this day when Tour de France finishes, you, bike lovers and scenic French road admirers, will be able to find consolation in watching this sincere and fragile comedy about a modest Belgian bike racer who dreams of glory.

Ghislain Lambert, interpreted by the hilarious Benoit Poelvoorde, lives in a small Belgian village with his mother, his brother and a mute farm hand. He is born in the seventies, eight minutes after Eddy Merckx, and hopes to follow his path. Lambert eventually joins a team of pro-cyclists, but as an assistant to a team leader he hates and, to compensate not having the legs his heart deserves, starts taking amphetamines and gets kicked out of the team. But Lambert does not give up: with the help of his not-entirely-charitable brother, played by the brilliant Jose Garcia, he will try and prove the world that he can live his passion.

Philippe Harel is a recognized director, selected in Cannes for his movie The Forbidden Woman, and praised by the critics for his movie Whatever, which already starred José Garcia, as well as for The Randonneurs, that marked his first collaboration with Benoit Poelvoorde.

Benoit Poelvoorde carries the movie with his personality. We knew how great he was at playing a dramatic character in Coco before Chanel : he proves once again, in this movie, how excellent he also is in comic situations, and in playing underdogs (In His Hands, Podium, Narco...).

In this movie, the blind devotion of the sport of bicycle practitioners and fans is never made to seem ridiculous. Philippe Harel makes a compassionate movie, full of amusing details, subtlely ironic, but showing cycling in a more credible way than cinema has ever done. A must for cycling cinema fans!