A documentary by Tony Girardin. In English, French, and Italian, with English subtitles. Rating unavailable.

Before establishing his reputation as a superlative bicycle builder, with as many as 30,000 custom machines to his credit, Giuseppe Marinoni was a champion racer in his native Italy. When he emigrated to Canada in 1965, he continued to win medals before switching to his basement workshops.

This generally pleasurable doc is a little wonky in presenting that chronology, but you eventually piece together his story. And it certainly succeeds as a study in obsession, following the charmingly obstreperous (then) 75-year-old Montrealer as he prepares to challenge a world record for riding endurance in his age category.

First-time filmmaker Tony Girardin tracked down his subject in the Montreal suburb of Lachenaie and spent three years trying to talk Marinoni into letting him capture the process of bicycle-building on camera. (Girardin ultimately shot most of the movie himself.) Their uneasy repartee in work sessions, with the older man making like a cranky Michelangelo with a welding torch, provides moments of comic relief, as well as insights into a talented athlete who ultimately shunned a public life.

This late return to cycling is counterpoised with the tale of Jocelyn Lovell, an ego-driven racer on his way to a world championship when he was hit by a truck in 1983 and left paralyzed. A visit between the two veterans provides an emotional high point for this relatively taciturn journey, especially when Marinoni makes it clear he’ll be riding the frame he made for Lovell before the latter’s 1978 championship contests.

This leads, in 2012, to an Italian sojourn in the hilly Bergamo province, where Marinoni’s name still looms large. The race itself is slightly anticlimactic, but it is exciting to know that in 2017 our cranky cyclist will turn 80, and thus be eligible for the next age category.