Time Trial

2018 • 81 minutes

About this movie

TIME TRIAL gives us an exhilarating and terrifying place in the race, providing an immersive experience as close to actually competing as you will ever see on film. David Millar, shrouded in darkness, declares an intention to rise again. A sensory ride through the thrill and hardship of professional cycling. We are hurtled off a hillside, details blurring like watercolours. The euphoria and the fatigue, the highs and the lows. It's as if it were ourselves struggling through the bumpy roads of France. David bluntly and fearlessly narrates his last season in the saddle, intimate and immediate, along with the intricate relationships of cyclist, road crew, fellow competitors, manic fans, and the media circus surrounding it all. 2017 Cycling Films Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Ratings and reviews

Or 'Becoming one of those muppets'. I can see why some people don't like it - plenty of it is blurred either because water has got on the lens of the on-bike cameras or for artistic reasons to highlight the speed. (You really don't need to pay extra for a HD version of this!) There is also very little explanation of what's happening for anyone not already interested in pro cycling. But it is a wonderful look at someone in their last season as a professional road bike racer, both the loneliness and being part of a team plus the peloton. David Millar was a great cyclist who cheated a few years into his career, was banned, and came back clean. He wants very much to be in the Tour de France for the thirteenth time, but his results - we have inside coverage of the Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-San Remo - don't warrant it. At 37, he's become one of the "muppets" (his word) who shouldn't get in the way of the better riders. Although it's mentioned more than once in archive, there is little from him about his past doping: if you want that, read his two (excellent) books. The 18 (UK) rating is for the language - the air is often blue in the Directeur Sportif's car!

I really wanted to like this. Appreciate a legend coming to terms with closing of career, but felt he focused on how cycling had chewed him up and spat him out. Understand that cycling professionally can be bleak and soulless, and not wanting an overromanticised biopic, but there was little insight here, beyond a solid soundtrack and some innovative on bike cinematography, particularly the contra-la-montre stuff.

Been looking forward to this for ages, well over a year, and feel let down. It isn't a commentary on anything really, just a lot of go-pro shots. Don't get me wrong, appreciate that UCI/ASO don't like filming in the peleton, so it was cool to see shots in neutral zone etc. However that was all it was, no story, no relatable theme and just felt a mish mash. I think it just tried too hard, took itself a bit too seriously and ultimately failed to get anything across.