When Kevin Costner Had a Mustache... and Played a Pro Cyclist

If you haven’t seen the movie “American Flyers,” you should check it out. 

Kevin Costner plays Marcus Sommers, a professional cyclist who persuades his wayward brother David (David Marshall Grant) to train and race in the “Hell of the West” (a fictional bike race in Colorado). 

Together — under the fictitious "Team Shaver Sport" banner — the two learn about themselves, forge a stronger bond, and fight to win the race. 

The film epitomizes what 1980s sports movies are all about. (That decade was the greatest era for sports movies, in my opinion.)

The soundtrack is all “synthesizered,” and the race footage (for 1985) was pretty decent. It also featured Soviets cyclists (because what 80s movie didn’t feature the Soviets as antagonists?). 

I happened upon the movie in the early 1990s at Blockbuster Video when I was attempting to see every movie featuring Kevin Costner. In the intervening years it became a favorite of mine. (Warner Bros really needs to release the movie on Blu-ray.) 

It was also a movie my brother-in-law Sean and I talked about. Sean (who died in 2017) handled public relations for professional cycling teams. He traveled all over the globe working cycling races. 

When he returned from a trip, I would always ask, “How did Team Shaver Sport do?”

I learned a lot about the world of pro cycling from Sean. 

I know the reputation of the sport has become tarnished because of the performance enhancing drug scandal surrounding Lance Armstrong. 

The sport has a different culture than other professional sports (especially the highly-regulated sports environment we are used to in the United States). Based on the conversations I had with Sean, the issues precipitating the Armstrong scandal weren’t really all that unusual in the sport. 

Part of the reason I decided to revisit the movie “American Flyers” was an episode of the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast I recently listened to where Rogan interviews Lance Armstrong:

The unfortunate reality is that Armstrong’s scandal tarnished the entire sport in the eyes of the public — a perception that might be permanent. 

It certainly isn’t the sport people envisioned in their minds, and it isn’t the sport as it was portrayed in the movie “American Flyers.” 

It's worth taking the time to watch … if only to see Kevin Costner with the 'stache.

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