Les cracks (1968)

At the very beginning of the twentieth century in the Paris region, an inventor named Jules-Auguste Duroc puts all his savings into a revolutionary bicycle with several features never seen before, including a freewheel that lets riders stop pedaling, particularly on descents. Despite his many efforts to find an investor or a bank to finance his patent and the industrial production of his bicycles, he finds himself in a critical personal situation. Deep in debt, he is also harassed by a ruthless bailiff who keeps trying to seize his invention. Duroc has only one hope left: to attract attention to his machine in an international cycling competition. His only chance lies in the upcoming Franco-Italian stage race from the French capital to San Remo, Italy. His brother-in-law, thirty-something Lucien Médard, is chosen to test the new bicycle. But with no other way to escape the relentless bailiff, Duroc ends up beneath the Eiffel Tower, where the race is starting. Finding himself in the middle of the pack, the inventor is swept into the race, despite being well past fifty. Fortunately, his invention proves extremely effective, and he begins to achieve success in several stages. His wife tries at various times first to discourage him and then to support him in the face of the bailiff’s cheating and other misdeeds. The villainous bailiff soon invests in the venture himself, while also trying to sabotage their bicycles or drug the competitors.