Breaking Away
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Dave (Christopher), Mike (Quaid), Cyril (Stern) and Moocher (Haley) live in a state college town and often get into fights with some of the male students. Dave is obsessed with bicycle racing. His down-to-earth, blue-collar father Paul (Dooley) is puzzled and exasperated by his son's love of Italian music and culture, which the son associates with bicycle racers. However, his mother Evelyn (Barrie) is more understanding. In a humorous interlude, Dave pretends to be an Italian exchange student in order to romance an unsuspecting university coed.
When a professional Italian biking team comes to town for a race, Dave is thrilled to be competing with them. But during the race, the Italians become annoyed when he is able to keep up with them and force him to crash. Dave becomes disillusioned and depressed as a result. Meanwhile, Dave's father has a mild heart attack and is briefly incapacitated.
His friends talk him into forming a team for the the annual Indiana University Little 500 bicycle race in an effort to beat a group of frat boys at their own game. They race under the name "Cutters" (in reference to stonecutters who worked in the limestone quarries in southern Indiana) against university intramural teams. Although the Little 500 is a relay race, Dave does all the riding for his team, building up a sizable lead. Then he crashes and injures his leg. At first, his teammates just stand around in shock - they didn't expect to have to do anything - but then Moocher jumps on the bike and does his best. When he tires, the other two do their part as well. Gradually, they lose the lead, then drop further and further behind. At that point, Dave has them tape his feet to the pedals, the only way he can ride, and gets back into the race. In the end, he overtakes the frat team and wins.
Dave's father, who's been prescribed bike riding for his health, is very proud of him. Later, he greets his son in Italian, only to have Dave reply in French. The French are also a bicycling power, and Dave has just met a French exchange student.
