La grande boucle (2013)

Formerly a celebrated cyclist and now an employee at Sport 2000, François Nouel (Clovis Cornillac) has followed the Tour de France all his life. But just as he is planning to go on vacation with his son and his wife, Sylvie (Élodie Bouchez), his employer asks him to fill in for a coworker and join the Tour caravan. Caught off guard, François cannot hide the truth at the presentation evening for the team sponsored by Sport 2000, and accidentally breaks Tony Agnelo’s (Ary Abittan) good-luck charm. In a single evening, he loses his job, and his wife leaves on vacation with their son, Thomas. François then meets Rémi Plétinckx (Bouli Lanners), a former Tour winner who has fallen into alcoholism. With nothing left to hold on to, François decides to fulfill his childhood dream: ride the Tour de France, one day ahead of the pros. Along the way, he meets the Bojeans, who, after their favorite rider abandons the race during the first stage, decide to follow François in his challenge in their motorhome. Rémi Plétinckx then helps François by providing him with equipment and talking about his challenge on television, including with Nelson Monfort. Very quickly, as the stages go by, François grows popular with the public, and even the Patrouille de France pays tribute to him, much to Tony Agnelo’s dismay, as he gets angry at seeing François steal the spotlight. After fifteen stages, François manages to finish the queen stage in the Pyrenees, which ends at the Col du Tourmalet. The next day, Plétinckx pushes François to promote numerous sponsors, but François is exasperated by Rémi’s attitude, since all he cares about is money. Also that same day, Tony Agnelo goes to François’s hotel to challenge him to a team time trial during the riders’ rest day. Despite François’s wishes, the challenge is accepted, and when four riders from the Sport 2000 team show up at the starting line, François is helped by Tina, the Bojeans’ daughter, as well as Bernard Hinault and Laurent Jalabert. But during the stage, François gets a call from his wife, Sylvie: their son has gone missing, and she doesn’t know where he is. On the route, François spots posters for a concert in Narbonne by a rapper named Âme Strong, whom his son adores. He deduces that Thomas has gone to the concert and decides to go find him, without finishing the stage. There, Âme Strong notices him and turns out to be a cycling fan. After the concert, he takes François and his son back to the Bojeans’ motorhome. Just when everything seems to be going well, the next day François is accused of doping. The accusations come to light when Pierre Bojean empties François’s bag, which is full of syringes and anabolic steroids. Everything falls apart for François: he loses all credibility and the public’s sympathy, but despite this, he decides to finish his Tour de France, accompanied by his son, who has decided to follow him. During the penultimate stage, with no access to supplies and no one supporting him, François, exhausted, collapses on the road. He wakes up in the hospital: the Bojeans have found him and brought him in. His tests show that he has taken no performance-enhancing drugs: it was a setup by Plétinckx, who regrets what he did. However, François has lost his one-day lead, so he can no longer finish his Tour before the pros, especially since police forces are blocking access to the Champs-Élysées circuit. François’s companions then create a diversion to let him through, but they are all arrested. However, François was not among the riders accompanying him: he is in the peloton of the actual race, disguised as a Sport 2000 team rider. He is accompanied by Tony Agnelo, who has forgiven him for breaking his good-luck charm. Having taken possession of the Tour’s yellow jersey, Tony decides, as they pass the circuit for the first time, to let François ride ahead so he can finish his Tour. His wife, Sylvie, is waiting for him beside the finish line. François has therefore fulfilled his dream and reconciled with his wife and son, while Tony Agnelo wins the Tour de France. Rémi Plétinckx, meanwhile, has stopped drinking and decides to train young cyclists.